Authorial God Complex
by IHaveAMetatronComplex
Summary: Okay, this is a story idea I had inspired by the quote from Metatron in season 8 when the boys first meet him, where he says that "When you create stories, you become gods of tiny, little intricate dimensions unto themselves." As an author, I have a bit of a god complex about it (hence my username), so I decided to write a story about an author who experiences her power herself.
1. Chapter 1

I picked up my pencil. There were so many ideas bouncing around in my brain.

 _Where should I even start?_ I wondered. There were so many ideas running through my head; which one should I go with? I grinned as I thought about what Metatron had said in Supernatural; about making little micro universes on paper with our stories. _Well,_ I thought, _if that's the case, I want to meet some of my favorite people._

I set my pencil to paper and began. I'm not sure about the quality of my work. That story makes me cringe now as I look back, but I think that is mostly because I can remember writing it; I remember the desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, this would be one universe I could experience myself, instead of simply writing it. That is the story that changed my life.

I was halfway through the first page when a rustling sound like a flock of pigeons flying around the room filled my head. I looked up and around, confused. My room was empty and silent. Rolling my eyes at my own overactive imagination, I set my pencil back and continued to write. Two sentences in, the rustling began again. Pushing my breath out in a gust of a sigh, I tried to focus on what I was trying to write, where I wanted the story to go, but the rustling just crescendoed until I couldn't even see the movie playing in my head; the one I was transcribing. I groaned when the lights flickered. _You have_ got _to be kidding me!_ I thought. _I'm trying to write here!_ I sighed heavily. _No rest for the wicked, I suppose._ I jerked my head up in shock when I heard a voice I knew _very_ well.

"What the hell? Who are you and how did you get in here?" My mouth dropped open as Dean stalked toward me, stance tense and ready to attack me at the slightest provocation. My eyes widened and I held my hands up in surrender.

"I-I-I don't know!" I stuttered out, trying to shrink back in my chair. He relaxed a bit at the fearful look on my face.

"How did you get in here?"

"I-I... I don't know. I was just in my room writing when I heard an unbearable noise of flapping wings, like a flock of pigeons was circling my head. A big flock. When I looked up, I was alone in my suddenly silent again room, so I went back to writing, but then the sound started back up and continued to get louder and louder until I couldn't even think anymore, then the lights flickered and you yelled at me, which prompted me to look up, and I was sitting here." He eyed me warily, one eyebrow raised in a show of skepticism.

I sighed and looked down at my paper. My mind blanked and I gasped.

"What?" I heard Dean's gruff voice from where I knew he still stood, even as I watched my paper with wide eyes. "What's wrong?"

"I..." I found my mouth had gone dry. I swallowed and licked my lips. "M-my story... It's continued."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"I-When I first heard your voice, I had a page and a half written. Now, I have at least two and a half pages, and I haven't touched my pencil. Come here and look."

He came over and I looked up to see the wary look on his face. He stared in astonishment as words appeared on the page, in my hand writing, even though I hadn't touched my pencil.

I stared at my paper, then grinned up at him. He looked at me warily as I picked up my pencil and started to write.

Dean snapped his fingers.

"Why the hell did I just do that?" He cried, enraged and confused.

I grinned up at him. "I just wrote it down."

His face contorted in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"Look!" I said, motioning him over. "What do you say we have a little fun with Crowley?" I applied my pencil to the page and a devil's trap appeared on the floor at the other end of the table. I grinned at Dean, who raised an eyebrow at me.

"You're not going to leave that there, are you?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Of course not, I'll just write later that it disappeared. Now, do you want to mess with King Dork of Hell or not?"

He smirked at me. "Careful. He's a bit more powerful than you."

I grinned and wagged my pencil at him. "Except I can write him however I want."

Dean smiled, a small, genuine grin. "Be careful of the power trip there, little lady. The fall can be hard."

I grinned. "I think I'll take a chance." I turned back to my paper and wrote. A cup of pencils appeared in front of me before becoming invisible.

"By the way, where's Sam?" I asked, humming contentedly as I tried to think of the best way to prank Crowley without him knowing it was me.

"What?" Dean turned, startled out of whatever trail of thought he'd been following. "Oh! Sammy... He, wh..." He seemed about to say something, then looked at my pencil and sighed in defeat.

"He... He left. Didn't seem to think I could be trusted after I tricked him into checking on his girl last week."

I sighed and shook my head. "You know, that was a pretty dick move on your part."

He groaned. "I know, but what was I supposed to do? He wanted to kill Benny, and nothing I could say was dissuading him!"

I nodded and locked eye contact with him. "I get that; really, I do. You were trying to protect Benny, but it seriously hurt your brother to go back and see her again."

Dean pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, nodding forlornly at me.

I smiled sadly at him. "How are you and Cas?" Dean shook his head angrily at the mention of his angel.

"I haven't seen him in three weeks. He took the angel tablet and vamoosed. He decided he couldn't trust me."

" _What?_ " I yelled, outraged. "He thinks _he can't trust you?_ After everything you did for him?"

Dean sighed. "Look um...?" He looked at me questioningly.

"Kara." I supplied.

He smirked a little before turning serious again. "Look, Kara... Cas is going through a lot right now, what with Naomi forcing him to follow her orders and everything. He just needs some alone time."

I shook my head and locked eyes with him. "No, he needs _you,_ Dean. I'm going to talk to him."

Ignoring Dean's protests, I picked up my pencil and wrote on the paper.

Cas appeared.


	2. Chapter 2

_I shook my head and locked eyes with him. "No, he needs you, Dean. I'm going to talk to him."_

 _Ignoring Dean's protests, I picked up my pencil and wrote on the paper._

 _Cas appeared._

He stumbled, clearly startled by the change of scenery that he hadn't chosen.

"What the-?" He said, startled and more than a little confused. "Dean," he said, "You could have just prayed. You didn't have to go so far as to summon me."

Dean sighed and looked at him. "Would you have answered?" Cas looked down, still having the decency to at least look ashamed of his treatment of Dean the past few weeks. "Besides," Dean continued, "this wasn't me." He indicated me with a nod.

Cas turned to me, his eyes slits and his head thrown to one side as he regarded me curiously. I smiled at him in sympathy.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"My name is Kara."

He looked at the pencil I was twirling in my hands. "How did you summon me?"

I grinned. "I just wrote that you appeared."

He stared at me. "This is the first time I have ever encountered, or even heard of, a human scribe."

"I'm not a scribe." I said. "I'm an author. I come from the universe Balthazar zapped the boys into; where this is all just a TV show. But that isn't important right now. Dean," I addressed the hunter. "I need to talk to Cas. Are you okay with me stealing him?"

Dean smirked. "Do I have a choice?"

I sighed. "I'm giving you one."

I locked eyes with him before turning to write on the page.

 _He needs you._ I wrote into Dean's mind. _He needs to realize how badly he needs you. He also needs to understand how important he is to you_.

Dean's brows shot into his hairline as he looked at me, but he nodded his understanding.

I smiled at him, writing on the page as I used my power to give me a visual of their fridge.

Raising a brow at the lack of groceries within, I pulled a notepad out and wrote Dean a list. When I handed it to him and saw the raised eyebrow he proffered me, I shrugged.

"It looks like I may be stuck with you boys for a while yet. I may as well make sure you are well fed. I'm not much of a cook, but with those ingredients, I can be good enough."

Dean raised an eyebrow at me and seemed about to challenge my assertion of being around for a while when he seemed to think better of it and shrugged nonchalantly before grabbing the list and heading for the front door.

I smiled after him before turning to Cas, who was fidgeting and staring at me with a smoldering intensity.

"Okay, Cas," I said, "We need to talk."

He turned to face me fully, eyes drilling into me. "Yes, we do. How did you come to be in this universe?"

I shook my head. "Oh no, you don't! We need to talk about _you_ , not _me_."

He tilted his head once more as he regarded me. "What about me?"

I stared at him. "Are you _kidding?_ " I asked, practically shaking with barely suppressed indignation, bordering on rage. "Where the hell have you been? Dean says he hasn't seen you in three weeks! _Three weeks,_ Cas! You are one of the most important people in Dean's life! You're one of the only two he's got left! You can't just abandon him like that!"

"You don't understand. I had something to protect-"

"Dean's not gonna break the angel tablet, Cas!"

Cas's eyes shot to slits and he looked away. "You don't know that."

"I don't care! The angel tablet is just a thing! It's an artifact, sure, but it's not like you can just read it yourself! You cut yourself off from the only people who can help you get it translated! The only ones who know where Kevin is are Garth, Sam and Dean, and you're alienating the most important of the three!"

"Sam-" He started to protest but I interrupted him, pencil forgotten as my story continued to write itself.

"Knows you and Dean have a 'more profound bond.'" I said, making air quotes to match. "He'll just expect you to talk to Dean about it."

Cas sighed. "Garth-?" He questioned weakly, as if he knew what my answer was going to be and didn't want to hear it, but had to be sure. I smiled gently.

"Cas, Garth wouldn't touch that line of inquiry with a ten foot pole. Not without consulting Dean. He's not an idiot. The Winchesters are famous in every circle; demons, angels, monsters, _hunters_. Everyone knows you're _their_ angel; no one's going to help you behind their back."

Cas growled. "No one _owns_ me, much less _the Winchesters_."

I shook my head. "No," I agreed with him, "they don't own you. Their claim on you runs far, far deeper than that; they _love_ you. They love you and you love them. You are family to them now, Cas, and you know what they do for family."

He nodded as I continued. "They go to hell for family. They face down death and archangels and leviathans for family. They forgive family and face down the betrayal of those they trust because of family." I saw his expression change and soured. "And don't you _dare_ say you're not family! Family doesn't end in blood, Cas, which you should know by now!"

"Look, Kara, I can't involve Dean in this."

"Fine, but I'm putting my foot down about explanation. You ditching out is killing him, and you both need each other. I'm stuck here until I manage to get back, and I _won't_ have any of my four favorite boys being idiots. This may be just a fan fiction universe, and I _know_ it's not canon, but this is _my_ fan fiction universe, and I will _not_ have you boys acting repressed and awkward, not if I can help it!" I grinned manically and brandished my pencil. "And I _can._ "

Cas rolled his eyes. "What do you want from me?"

I sighed. "Honesty. Not for me, for Dean. I need to tell you; You aren't a leader, Cas. And I don't just mean you make a poor one, you _don't_ lead. I don't know if you've even noticed the pattern yet, but I certainly have."

He stared at me. "What do you mean?"

I sighed. "When you first met Dean, you were partnered with Uriel. Remember him? Mr. Smitey McSmitester?"

Cas raised an eyebrow at the nickname, but acquiesced and nodded.

"He took the lead." I said, remembering how he did most of the talking.

"You reminded me of a dog and his owner. The dog would growl and bark and snap, but only when he tried to bite your favorite human did you yank on his leash and say no."

Cas growled a bit, a warning evident in his tone. "He was not some dog; he was my brother."

"It was a word picture, Cas. You were barely handling him. You let him boss you around and do whatever he wanted, as long as he left Sam and Dean alone. How many of your siblings did he kill on that rampage? How many humans?"

Cas narrowed his eyes to slits. "That is _not_ on me. He acted on his own, of his own accord. I did not even know that it was him doing so."

"But you didn't stop him until he acted against either Dean or other angels."

"Was it important before that?"

I sighed. "I guess not. Well, let's move on to example number two; what about Anna?"

Cas tilted his head as he regarded me in confusion. "What about her?"

"She fell, and she led you for a while in falling as well, before you handed her over to those dickbags you call siblings."

"So?"

"She led you; you weren't independent. You were, at best, interdependent. You looked to her for leadership. Not that it was bad _that_ time, but that's your weakness, Cas; for some reason, you crave subjugation; even if it _is_ subtle."

He sighed. "No, I fight subjugation."

I smiled and hummed. "Of course you do, as long as there is someone to show you how."

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?"

My smile grew to a grin. "Which brings me to example number three; our very own Dean Winchester. You hunt evil when you are with him, correct?" He nodded, confusion evident on his face. "Why? Why do you hunt evil when you're with Dean?"

"Because the monsters must be stopped! They destroy mankind!"

"So why not hunt without the Winchesters around?"

"I have... other things to attend to." He said softly, refusing to look me in the eye.

I beamed at him. "Exactly! Don't you see? The Winchesters keep you hunting; they keep you doing good!"

"I can do good on my own." He groused, glaring at me.

I smirked. "Right. How about we look at my number four example, shall we? Crowley."

His head jerked up to glare at me and he all but growled; his eyes starting to glow ominously. "What does Crowley have to do with this?"

I sighed softly before picking up my pencil and writing.

I am indestructible. If Cas smites me, I will simply reappear in the kitchen of the bunker.

"What did you just write?" He growled.

"Just some insurance, dear. The last thing I need is to die in a strange universe of my own making because you decided to get touchy while I was in the middle of making a point."

"And what would that point be?" Cas snapped. "All you seem to be doing is replaying my greatest shortcomings for me."

I stood up, striding over to where Cas' 5'11" dwarfed me. He glowered down at me as I stared up at him, making sure I maintained eye contact with him as I spoke.

"You need Dean. He keeps you good. He keeps you from being corrupted. He keeps you a hero. Without him, you stumble; you get tricked. He helps you." Cas sighed and looked away, but I brought him back to face me again with a gentle hand on his cheek.

"Cas," I said, "I wasn't done yet." I smiled gently at him. "The thing is, Dean also needs you. When you leave, he goes insane with worry. He would give anything to keep you safe and alive. You're his _family_ , Cas. He would destroy the world to keep you safe and healthy. Every time you leave him, betray him, or lie to him, it eats him alive. He cares about you to the point of self neglect. You two need each other; you need to stop hurting each other or pretending you can get on without each other."

"Why do you care?" He asked softly, leaning slightly into my hand.

I sighed. "Frankly, you two being apart scares me way more than I care to admit. I ship Destiel harder than anything in my life, but I won't push you into anything beyond the close bond you boys already have."

"What is Destiel?" He asked, curiosity alight in his face again.

I smirked. "Google it, I dare you." I turned to walk back to the table and my pencil. When I picked it up, Cas' tense voice rang out.

"What are you doing?"

"Nothing to hurt you, angel. Relax."

The devil's trap on the floor disappeared. I also wrote into Dean's head.

 _If you were waiting for an all clear before bringing me my groceries, this is it._

Cas' phone rang. "Hello?" His deep voice sounded off. "Yes, she's right here." He handed the voice to me.

"Hello?" I asked, smiling, an idea already forming in my head as to what this was about.

"You need to get a phone."

I grinned at Dean's grumpy tone. "And who's gonna be paying my bill?"

"Oh please! You're the author for this universe, or whatever! You called this your 'fan fiction', just overlook the details!"

I hummed, working hard to suppress my laughter. "Yeah, I could, I suppose. Why should I do that, though?"

"Maybe so you'll stop writing into my head!"

"Maybe I will. Anyway, have you gotten my groceries? Because I'm done with your angel."

I could almost _hear_ him roll his eyes. "Be careful. He doesn't like to be called that."

I grinned at Cas. "He'll get over it. So did you?"

Dean sighed over the phone. "Yes I bought you groceries."

"Perfect!" I cheered. "Including item number ten?"

"My brother isn't groceries, Kara."

"But did you call him, or do I need to use my super power on him, too?"

Dean groaned. "I texted him and asked him to meet me at the bunker. He's on his way there now. Happy?"

I cheered. "I am now! Now hurry up and get your butt back here! Shepherd's pie tonight!"-

He laughed. "Yes, ma'am, but I want you to have a phone by the time I get back."

"Oh, alright." I laughed with him and said my goodbyes before hanging up and handing Cas' phone back to him.

As we waited for Sam and Dean to both show up, I got on Sam's computer and shopped around for a phone. I roped Cas into helping me decide. We were still shopping and hemming and hawing when the door opened.

"Hey, Cas, how are you doing? Dean said there was a surprise waiting for me."

Cas straightened and turned to the door with a sigh. "Hello, Sam, it's good to see you again. I am well, but I'm not the surprise." He stepped aside and I smiled and waved a little at the moose.

"Hi, Sam."

He stared at me. "Who the hell are you?" He asked.

I beamed at him. "My name's Kara! I'm the surprise!"

Sam looked from Cas to me and back again. "Okay..." He drew out the end as he struggled to understand what was going on.

"Cas, you still need to help me!" I whined at him.

Cas sighed and shook his head. "Kara, I told you. I have no idea what phone you should get."

I pouted at him, then turned to Sam. "Sam! My moose! I need your help; money is no object, I'm stuck with you guys for a while; which phone would be most useful as a hunter?"

His eyebrows shot past his hairline. "You're _what?"_

I groaned. "Fine. I'll ask Mr. Grumpy Gills!" I picked up my pencil and wrote into Dean's head.

 _Your frigging brother and angel won't help me, so I'm stuck with you. What kind of phone should I get?_

The door opened and I heard a familiar groan. "Seriously?" He called. "You can't even get yourself a _phone_ without my help? Do I have to hold your hand every step of the way?"

I shrugged, then grinned slyly and said, "I think Cas might object to that."

Dean's face blanked and Sam groaned. "No. Don't tell me you're one of _them_!"

I beamed at him, grinning when he crumpled into his hands and groaned.

"So, Dean, you want me to get a phone, you gotta help me decide."

He sighed. "Come on, you're a teenager. You gotta have _some_ kind of dream phone."

I rolled my eyes. "I'll have you know, I'm 20, thank you very much, and besides, an iPhone is hardly a good idea unless I want to constantly be replacing it."

"Then get something else! I _don't care_!"

I sighed. "Do I need something that can go on the internet?"

Dean looked at Sam, who shrugged. "I don't see why you would."

I smirked. "Unless I wanted to get on twitter or Facebook and brag about this, right?"

I chuckled at the glare Dean leveled on me. "Kidding; relax." I said. Nodding, I came to a conclusion. "Okay, I know what to get." I picked up the pencil and applied it to my paper.

A Nokia 3310 appeared.

I grinned at Dean. "I don't need to text, right?"

He smirked. "Kicking it old school, huh?"

I shrugged, grinning. "Hey, it's practically indestructible."

He nodded with a smirk. "Okay, I can get behind that. Good choice."

I beamed at his approval.

"Okay," Sam said, butting into our bonding time, "What the hell is going on? Who the hell are you? How did you get here? _Why_ are you here?"

I looked at Sam and smiled sadly. "Here," I said, handing him the papers that were still updating themselves, even as we went on.

His eyes widened as he started to read. He smiled and I watched his eyes dart to where the devil's trap I'd drawn had been before he shrugged.

I watched hurt flash through his eyes before he sighed and shook his head. _He must have read what I said to Dean about tricking him._

His eyebrows drew together then shot into his hairline and Cas shifted uncomfortably then cleared his throat.

"I'm well aware, Sam, thank you. As you're clearly in the middle of reading, Kara and I have been over this."

Sam flushed. "Right. Sorry. That wasn't supposed to be heard."

Cas sighed softly. "I always hear your prayers. Both of you."

Sam grinned at me and changed the subject. "So you _are_ a shipper then, Kara?"

"I'm sure I don't know what you mean." I countered coldly, looking studiously away from him.

"Uh huh, sure." He smirked before reading aloud from the page in front of him. "I shook my head and locked eyes with him. 'No, he needs _you,_ Dean.'"

"Shut up." I muttered, flushing as Cas turned to me, his squint fully trained on me.

"Holy shit..." Sam muttered, looking at me again. "You're a _scribe?_ "

I groaned. "Keep reading. I refuse to repeat myself."

He continued. "Wait," he looked up at me. "You're from that universe where I married Ruby?"

I smirked. "Yeah, Jarpad. I'm even an honorary Mishamigo."

"You _like_ the show?" Sam asked incredulously.

I scoffed. "Are you _kidding_? Of course!"

Dean stared at me. "Why? Why the hell would you want to watch a show about _our_ lives?"

I turned to him, rolling my eyes. "Look, Dean, I get that you think your life sucks and all, but your relationships with Sam and Cas are the meat which all the best epics are made of."

"What do you mean?" Cas spoke up, clearly confused.

"Cas, how many times have you ditched Dean or betrayed him?"

Cas shifted and looked away, but Dean growled. "I don't care. Don't bring up what doesn't matter!"

I almost screamed with the perfection of his answer.

His eyes widened when I started quivering with the effort of holding in my squeal.

"Oh. My. God!" I yelled. "Do you not see how perfect your response was? God, you three love each other so much I'm going to overdose!"

Sam snorted, trying and ultimately failing to hold back his laughter.

Dean and I both glared at him until he finally calmed, wiping his eyes a bit and sighing. "Kara, you are so strange! I'm going to enjoy having you around."

I smiled tentatively at him.

He turned back to the pages and continued reading. After a second he smirked and I raised my brow at him.

"'He needs you'?" Sam said, smirking at me.

"It's true!" I cried indignantly.

He shook his head and continued reading. After a few seconds, I heard a muttered _thank god._

When I cleared my throat, he looked up and said, "Are you really willing to cook for us?"

I grinned and gestured toward the bags of groceries. "Shepherd's pie tonight. Who wants to help me?"

Sam grinned at me. "Just let me finish this first."

I smiled and nodded my consent before conscripting Cas and Dean to help me put the groceries away in the kitchen. I put the water on to boil, adding a dash of salt to make it boil faster. I also conscripted Cas to peel potatoes and Dean to chop vegetables once the groceries had been put away.

Sam wandered in, smirking. "You know for someone who claims to care so deeply for Cas, you sure are good at poking all his buttons."

I rolled my eyes at him as he smirked. "Tell me I didn't have a valid point." I challenged him.

"No, you did; I agree, but there are gentler ways to make the point."

I turned to Cas. "Would you have listened, angel?"

He stopped peeling potatoes to give me a confused look. "Would I have listened under what circumstances?"

"If I'd been any gentler with you about Dean."

He sighed. "Probably not. I felt you had no background knowledge with which to judge. You proved you did."

I smiled at Sam. "See?"

He shook his head, the smirk softened to a fond grin on his face. "Fine. You win this time." He walked back to the dining room to continue reading and I turned back to continue cooking. When Cas finished peeling the potatoes, I added them to the boiling water and started browning the ground beef for the pie.

Cas had turned to help Dean finish chopping the vegetables when Sam walked in, a triumphant, gloating smirk on his face.

"I knew you were a shipper." He said grinning triumphantly.

I glared at him. "Watch it, Samsquatch. That ain't the only thing I ship."

He shuddered visibly. "Please tell me you don't want to throw me in there."

"Ugh, no!" I said, grimacing. "First of all, three ways in general kind of weird me out, as does Sastiel. Second of all, Wincest?" I mimed gagging and Sam relaxed, then smiled at me.

"Well, I gotta say, first of all, that I agree with you. Beyond that, please don't tell Cas to google things. He always makes me his first stop and I am _not_ explaining that one!"

I laughed at that. "Fair enough."

Sam, who had turned back to the pages, laughed. "Did you _really_ add me to Dean's shopping list?"

"She really did." Dean spoke up. "Why do you think I texted you?"

Sam grinned and put the papers down on the dining room table before coming in to help. When asked what he could do, I set him to watching the potatoes and meat so I could prep the pie pan and start the veggies boiling.

We continued with dinner until the shepherd's pie was in the oven.

As we waited for it to finish, Sam turned to me.

"So, you know I gotta ask. Dean and Cas are already shipped; who's your other ship? I mean, obviously it's me and someone else. Who do you ship me with? Ruby? Becky?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, neither of them. I can't stand either of those girls, Samoose."

"So who is it? If you say Crowley, we will have an issue."

I snorted. "No, Crowley's got his own ship, which I am _not_ discussing with you."

"Fine, then who is it?"

I laughed. "Are you kidding? I'm not about to tell Dean about his, and you expect me to announce yours?"

"We were _just_ talking about him, though."

"Yeah, well he wasn't listening. Were you, Dean-o?"

Dean frowned at me. "Listening to what?"

I smirked. "Exactly."

"I bet he would take it well."

"No he wouldn't! He's still in denial!"

"Hey guys, I'm right here! What wouldn't I take well?"

Sam grinned. "Who your ship is conamed with." He turned to me. "I'll tell him. I bet he won't mind."

"Who my what is what now?" Dean asked, staring at his brother like he had suddenly started speaking a foreign language.

Sam just rolled his eyes at his brother before turning back to me expectantly. I glared at him. "Fine, but if he tries to beat me up, I'm never talking to you again!"

Sam smiled. "I'd make him go through me first, if it makes you feel better."

I smiled. That _did_ actually make me feel better. I had watched them in a fist fight and Sam could hold his own, at least for a while; long enough for me to run for my life.

"Okay. Deal." I said. Sam grinned and turned to Dean.

"Dean, Kara and I need to announce our OTP. It's right here in this room."

I sighed and grabbed plates to set the table. The pie should take another half hour to bake. When I walked out, Sam, Dean, and Cas grabbed other dishes and followed me out to help.

"Okay, what the hell does that mean?" Dean said, rolling his eyes.

"Our OTP is Destiel, Dean."

"What the hell is an OTP?" He asked, thoroughly confused.

"It stands for One True Pairing, dude. Get with the times. Now, take the first two letters of your name." Sam said.

"Got it, smart ass. Now what?"

"Add Cas' name; his full name." Sam continued.

"Remove the CA." I concluded quietly.

I flinched then, expecting rage, but raised my head when none came. Dean was staring at his brother and I, then shifting his gaze to Cas as if seeing him for the first time.

"I-Wow... Um, why would you think that?" Dean floundered, seemingly at a loss. I stared at him in confusion. I've read a lot of fan fiction and watched enough of the show that I'd like to think I know him, but when he stood there, brow furrowed in confusion, I realized that maybe watching him from the comfort of my own universe was not as effective as actually fighting by his side in letting me truly get to know him.

I shrugged nervously. "I-I don't know." I said, at a loss as to how to reason through my desire for him to be happy with Cas, without the adrenaline of having to defend myself and my desires.

"We just really think it would make you both happy, Dean. I think I speak for Kara as well when I say we really want you to be happy. You deserve it. Besides, you both share a 'more profound bond', for crying out loud!" Sam said, trying to explain what I couldn't.

Cas tilted his head. "What do you mean?" His voice sounded strange, almost cautiously dangerous, if that were possible; like he didn't want to jump to conclusions, but he didn't like what he had just heard.

Sam turned to him, chewing his bottom lip. "Umm..."

"Cas," I jumped in before he could smite the younger Winchester, "Look, Dean only has a profound bond with one person, and that's you. Let me show you what I dared you to google earlier."

I returned to where Sam's laptop sat open on the table. I opened google and typed "Destiel" in the search box, then after a moment's hesitation, selected the third option down, which added the word "fanart" onto the end. I clicked "images" and turned when I heard a small gasp. I grinned at Cas when I watched his mouth drop open slightly at all the pictures. I smiled as I turned back to the computer screen, seeking out my favorite. It was surprising and kind of disconcerting how many images had transferred over into this universe.

I clicked an image about halfway down the page, enlarging it."This is my favorite." I said. It was a picture of two hands clinging to each other by their pinkies. One had a tan trench coat falling to the wrist and the other had a bracelet and a watch, an artist's rendition of the ones Dean wore.

Sam gave an impressed grunt. "Surprisingly subtle."

I scoffed. "Gee, Sam, you sure know how to give a girl the warm and fuzzies."

"I'm not trying to be mean, it's just that you're a fangirl; I was expecting something not quite so safe for work."

I shrugged. "It's my phone background. I come from a strong Christian family background. They don't exactly take kindly to homosexuality, or to the way your show portrays God and angels; imagine their reactions if they found out my two OTPs from this show were gay. They don't know those hands like I do; they're both just hands to my family unless I explain. So, I don't." I said simply, shrugging.

Sam grinned. "Well, now that I've kept up my end of the deal. Dean hasn't freaked out, and Cas hasn't either. Your turn." He turned bright, attentive eyes and a face splitting grin on me.

I flushed and looked down, my heart beating wildly in my chest, the embarrassment forcing my blood to churn so fast I felt my ears heat up exponentially. "You don't want to know." I muttered, my voice naught but a whisper.

"Aw, come on, Dean didn't freak out; I promise I won't! I know it's about me! _And_ you just said it's gay! Now I totally _have_ to know!"

I glared at him. "Once again, Sammy, I'm not worried about you with this one. It just so happens to be once again _Dean_ whose bad side I don't want to be on!"

"That is an invalid excuse." Dean said. "I promise not to care."

I shot him a look and sighed. "Fine! My two OTPs go hand in hand! The first one is Destiel and the second one is-is- _Sabriel_! Are you happy now?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I'm sorry guys; I just couldn't help myself! I'm a shipper, and that's just something I couldn't escape with this story. If you feel like I'm wandering away from their personalities from the show, let me know! I can always use constructive criticism!**

* * *

" _That is an invalid excuse." Dean said. "I promise not to care."_

 _I shot him a look and sighed. "Fine! My two OTPs go hand in hand! The first one is Destiel and the second one is-is-Sabriel! Are you happy now?!"_

I collapsed in my chair, pouting, as the grin and excitement was wiped off Sam's face; he was clearly trying to figure it out.

It was Cas who spoke first, turning to me. "Am I safe in assuming this 'Sabriel', as you call it, follows the same rules as 'Destiel'?" I flushed and nodded, looking resolutely at the computer screen, until I felt a hand laid softly on my shoulder. Cas smiled down at me.

"I think that is a brilliant idea. They would have gotten along fine, if what my brother said to me just before he died is anything to go by."

I stared at the angel, almost overwhelmed by how easily he had accepted that.

"Wait, Cas, what do you mean, your brother?" Sam said, genuinely confused. "Conventional ship naming." He said, muttering to himself, trying to figure out what name he had been placed in front of.

"Oh my god!" He cried, turning to me, his eyes wide with discovery. " _Gabriel_?"

I scowled. "Yeah, why not?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I mean, sure he's dead, but... You're right. Beyond that, why not?"

"How about how many times he killed me; how much he messed with us in TV Land?" Dean growled, glowering at all of us.

"Dean, he's like the little boy on the playground. He doesn't know how to be serious, so he throws rocks and pulls pigtails." I sighed, looking to him.

"Dean, you need to hear what Gabriel said to me right before he died." Cas said, putting his hand on his hunter's shoulder. "He said that he wished he could have been as brave as I was, stood up to the others like I had, or at least done so sooner. He apologized for not saving me from reeducation for the past two thousand years that he has been absent from my life. He told me he admired my bravery, and that if he could, he would have joined the fight alongside us. He also told me-" Cas faltered, blushing a little, eyes filled with unshed tears. I reached to comfort him, but Dean beat me to it, pulling Cas close and smirking at me when I nearly hyperventilated again.

Cas fisted his hands in the back of Dean's shirt, burying his face in his shoulder until, with a shaky breath, he pulled himself out and stared into Dean's eyes before turning to Sam. "He told me that if he could have done things differently, he would have acted on his feelings toward Sam as I had toward you, helping instead of hurting; caring, and maybe even staring, instead of mocking you all like he had."

My eyes grew wide and I almost fainted. Not only were Cas and Dean cuddling, but _Gabriel actually had feelings for Sam! Like honest to God feelings! My other OTP! There was hope!_ I turned to grin at Sam and saw his eyes wide and filling with water. In that moment, I made a split second decision and restored what Lucifer had ruined with a single thrust of an angel blade.

I picked up my pencil, turned to my paper and wrote.

Gabriel is back. He is alive. He is in the compound. He and Sam have a chance at happiness.

I heard voices around me, but I continued.

Balthazar is alive, he is willing to try to get along with the boys. And me. He and Gabriel are willing to work with Cas to help restore order in heaven and give the angels more freedom and the ability to choose their fate.

I put my pencil down to find Cas staring at me.

"What have you done, Kara?" He asked, suddenly pensive. "I can feel my brother Balthazar, but not as he once was."

I flushed and looked down. "I hadn't meant to alter his personality, I just wanted him back. I'm sorry." I looked up to make eye contact with him, suddenly feeling defensive. "With two simple, short paragraphs, I just righted two of the greatest mistakes any of you angels have ever made. You're welcome, Castiel." I said.

"Kara, right?" I heard Gabe's voice and looked up, grinning.

"Hi, Gabriel! How you doing?"

"Um, I'm alright. Listen, would you care to explain something to me?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"Why is Balthazar positively _howling_ at me and Cas to tell him where we are? And why does he keep bringing up your name when I ask why?"

I flushed. "I may have... unintentionally changed his personality. I'm sorry. I wasn't trying."

He snorted. "Believe me, it's not his personality that's changed. Same sassy ass hole attitude as ever; just as selfish, too. It's just... You seem to have become the Dean to his Cas... The-dare I say this out loud- the Sam to his Gabriel, if you know what I mean."

My face was burning. My ears were burning. My heart was burning, slow roasting on a spit that I stoked continually as I berated myself for writing what I did. I was about to pick up my pencil to erase what I had just written when a hand alighted itself on mine. I looked up pensively to find Balthazar's leering grin gazing back at me.

"Hello, Kara darling. Nice to see you finally made it over."

"I-I what?" I stood up, afraid to be seated in the presence of so much Grace, even if I did like all three angels attached, for one reason or another.

"What, did you think that was a one way street? I grant you, I had to die before I could go over to you-" Here, Balthazar shot a look to Castiel- "But I _did_ make it, and once I got you here, I had sincerely hoped it wouldn't be too long before you brought me back. One question though; why were you so willing to lie to Sam about who you ship me with?"

I flushed. "Would _you_ have wanted to tell Sam the truth, had you been me?"

He smirked. "Why not? After all, you _do_ have a thing for accents, don't you?" I flushed deeper.

"Shut up." I whispered, looking away from him. As it turns out, _that_ was a very bad idea. I squeaked as two fingers connected with my butt.

"Make me." He said with a saucy wink before we were interrupted by a groan.

"Get a room, you two!" Dean said, shaking his head.

"Business first, Winchester, but that sounds like a plan to me." Balthazar said, winking at me again and grinning when I went weak in the knees. I reached to cling to his arm, but he dodged my questing fingers and wrapped his arm around my waist, supporting me that way instead. Castiel picked up my papers, which were still being written on, and said,

"We must keep these safe. But where?"

"What happens if they get harmed?" I wondered aloud.

"Everything that you have written ceases to exist. You and I go home and I haunt you as a ghost for the rest of your life. You don't find out how in love I am until heaven. Sam goes back to avoiding Dean, and Castiel, my dear little brother, goes back to whatever he was doing before you showed up. Gabriel goes back to being dead." Balthazar drawled, looking at me with a crooked eyebrow that he must have been practicing for centuries. I crooked mine right back before turning back to the others.

"Well, what can we do?"

Gabriel hummed before grinning and snapping his fingers. Sam's shirt disappeared.

"Dude!" Sam yelled, glaring at Gabriel as I tried unsuccessfully to hide my sniggering.

Gabriel flushed. "Sorry, sorry. My mind wandered." He snapped again and this time my story glowed a little.

"There. It's on the internet now; one of those message boards that the Supernatural fans are so fond of. There's no destroying the story now; even if the papers get lost."

I grinned at him, then turned to Balthazar. "Is that actually a feasible solution?"

He shrugged. "More or less. Of course, at this point, someone just needs to kill you to sever the connection between the universes. Then the story would stop writing itself and fade."

I frowned. "That doesn't sound very good. I'm not exactly a warrior."

He grinned leeringly at me. "Not yet, you're not." He said.

"Balthazar," Castiel's voice held a warning. "What have I told you about permission."

"Oh, come now, she's _already_ an angel, I'd just be making it literal!" He said, pouting. I flushed and studied my shoes. _This_ was getting embarrassingly sweet.

"Okay, is business over? Because I want to explore this whole 'Destiel' idea that everyone seems so fond of, and if I didn't know any better, I'd say Balthazar's ready for some Kalthazar action right here in my goddamn dining room!" Dean declared, snaking his arm around Castiel's waist with a grin.

Gabriel took a giant breath in through his nose and grinned. "What is that _delicious_ smell?" He asked.

My eyes flashed open. " _Shit!_ My pie!" I yelled, running for the kitchen. Balthazar laughed and followed me, helping me pull it out and healing my hand with a gentle kiss when I accidentally caught the casserole dish with bare skin in my haste.

When we got back into the dining room, Gabe's eyes widened to saucers. "Is that... Shepherd's Pie?" He asked incredulously. "With beef?"

I smiled shyly and nodded, dodging eye contact as I placed the hot pads on the table so Balthazar, who had insisted on carrying it in after I burned myself, could place it on the table in the center. He raised the spatula we had brought out for serving before saying "To Team Free Will!" and grinning at me proudly, as if I had just made a meal fit for the king of Sheba.

Gabe grinned at me. "Actually, Kara, technically you did. When there was beef instead of mutton in the pie, it was renamed 'King's pie' because cattle were raised for labor more than meat, and so beef was rarer, and often times only royalty ate it on any regular sort of basis."

Balthazar snarled. "There is such a thing as _privacy_ , Gabriel, I suggest you learn the word."

I flushed even darker.

"Oh please!" Gabriel scoffed. "You can't pretend you didn't hear that! She practically _prayed_ it!"

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "Yes, I can pretend I didn't hear that, just like I've been pretending not to hear every fool thing Sam wants to do to you once he gets you alone; and he's practically screaming those."

Gabe grinned before leering at a blushing Sam, who had thankfully been given a replacement shirt by one of the others; in a guess, probably Cas. "I know, I can hardly sit straight."

"TMI!" Dean and I yelled in tandem.

"I believe, Balthazar," Castiel said with a sigh, "If you had paid a _bit_ more attention, you'd have heard your mate's prayer to actually eat in peace." He placed his hand on my shoulder comfortingly and smiled gently at me. "Now, why don't we all sit down and try the food; since I'm sure no one wants to actively insult the woman holding the pencil to this entire universe." I flushed and went to sit beside Balthazar, who hooked an arm around me and pulled me into his lap.

"My apologies." He murmured, nuzzling my neck and drawing another embarrassed flush to my cheeks, "I'm sure it will taste better than all of the splendors of Babylonian cuisine."

At the confusion in my face, Gabriel, who had plopped on Sam's lap, much as Balthazar had pulled me to his, grinned. "He's only saying that because that's where it originated."

Smiling softly, I took advantage of the height increase being on Balthazar's lap wrought me to serve food to everyone at the table. Soon, the room was filled with moans and appreciative groans as the hunters and Gabriel inhaled their food. Castiel took his time, savoring every bite and I grinned broadly as his eyes rolled back in his head every time he put another bite on his tongue. Then I felt Balthazar's hand on my waist and looked to him. He grinned and winked at me, before taking his next forkful and putting it on my tongue.

"Are you sure about that garlic idea?" He whispered in my ear. "Because I think it tastes perfect the way it is."

I nodded dumbly, not all that surprised he had read my mind, but pacified anyway as I watched everyone enjoy my king's pie and didn't hear a single complaint. Still, my insecurities got away from me and suddenly Gabriel laughed out loud. "Please tell me you're joking, Kara! That's almost as ridiculous as thinking you could accidentally change Balthazar's personality!" I flushed and looked away, then felt Balthazar's hand tighten on my hip.

"Gabriel! Table manners, brother!"

"Oh, come on! Thinking she could intimidate an honest reaction like this out of five hungry men; all of whom are much stronger and more powerful than her? Even _you_ have to admit, that's farfetched, even for a scribe!"

I flushed and looked down at my plate as I felt Balthazar's hand tighten around mine. Dean wrenched his gaze from his pie to stare at me. When I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up into an ear splitting grin.

"He's right, Kara." Dean said. "Pie is my favorite food group, and while I don't usually branch out of fruit territory, this has got to be the best damn pie I have ever tasted."

My ears were heating up again as I murmured my thanks and looked away from Dean. I felt a hand on my cheek, turning my face back the way it was before. Balthazar grinned at me.

"I love it when you blush so hard your ears turn red."

Before I could respond, I felt something at my mouth. When I parted my lips, a fork slipped past. "Now, eat, I know you when you get writing, and you haven't eaten anything since breakfast this morning."

I shrugged. "It was a big breakfast. If you've really been watching me, you'd know that."

He rolled his eyes. "Please, you made eggs instead of frogs in a hole, you only made four pieces of bacon, and you only had half an avocado. That's like half your usual fare!"

I glared at him. "The only thing I was missing was some toast and it would have been _exactly_ my usual fare, Balthy."

He grinned warmly at the pet name. "Yes, but then you got busy writing and getting transported to an alternate reality and didn't bother to eat lunch."

I rolled my eyes at him, but accepted the next forkful that was pressed to my lips without comment.

Balthazar smiled warmly and ran his hand gently over my hip, then pressed his lips to the crook of my neck. I sighed and shifted in his lap. He cleared his throat pointedly and I turned to grin at him. He glared at me playfully and I laughed lightly.

"So, Kara..." Gabriel started, distracting my attention from the angel whose lap I had filled.

I turned to the angel, smiling. "So, Gabe..." I mimicked him, grinning as he rolled his eyes.

"...Has my dear brother _Balthy_ told you about the idea of making you an angel; fully fledged, with wings and all?"

My eyes widened to the size of saucers. "W-Wings?" I asked, confused and wondering. How could I sprout wings?

Balthazar sighed. "It is your choice. Castiel has been quite adamant about that. Basically, there is a spell, if an angel has mated with a human, that can be cast to turn said human into an angel, with grace and wings and everything." He smiled softly at me. "Like I said before," he whispered softly, "it's your choice, but it would greatly increase your resilience to damage and your stamina. It would also give you wings." He said, leering for some reason I couldn't quite place, until he leaned in and whispered in my ear. "And believe me, I know how to make wings feel good." I flushed again, at a loss as to what I could possibly say.

"It is your choice, Kara, but if you agree, we will all be happy to help any way we can." Castiel said gently, his gaze warm and sincere on mine.

I smiled gratefully at him. "Thank you, Cas. Thank you for being so patient and listening so well to me."

"Hey," Dean said, "You don't need to worry, Kara. If you don't want to go through with this, you don't have to; we will all be there to help you anyway we can." Everyone around the table nodded their agreement and I smiled, overwhelmed by the support being shown by men whom I knew, but who hardly knew me at all.

Balthazar pulled me deeper into his embrace, smiling against my skin as I felt my eyes start to get tickled. "Hey," He whispered softly, a hand on my cheek, turning my face to his. "If you truly knew them, you should have seen this coming. The Winchesters are honorable men, as is Cassie, and Gabriel and I would be fools not to want to show our gratitude to the remarkable woman who brought us back to life and gave us a chance to experience that which we missed out on the first time around. I'm so glad I found you while the boys were in your universe."

I blinked. "You what?"

He grinned. "I was tasked with watching them, but they spent enough time sleeping and acting and being all around fools that I didn't have to watch them too closely until they picked a fight with Virgil. Before that, I was pretty free to explore. I stumbled across you writing. I must say; I thoroughly enjoyed that story you wrote about the girl who lived in the magical forest. The one with the transdimensional trees?"

I smiled shyly. "It wasn't _that_ great." I whispered, secretly pleased he had enjoyed it. He just chuckled and pressed another kiss to my neck, before picking up his fork and resuming feeding me. The others had all continued eating, getting more when they were finished and ignoring Balthazar and I until everyone had had their fill and we were all out. The piece that Balthazar had been coaxing into me was only half done, and the others all stood to help clean up, leaving Balthazar and I alone in the dining room. I turned to him.

"So, how were you watching me after that?"

"You recall the episode you watched where Cassie killed me, yes?" I nodded, and Balthazar sighed before continuing. "Well, I was given a choice. Cease to exist, or return to your universe as an angel there."

I nodded. "So you came to my universe?"

"Yes, but if I'd actually showed myself to you in the way I wanted to, I would have been cast down into the lake. See, in your universe, God actually has his angels under control. He actually keeps an eye on what's going on. So, I bided my time; I found a spell that I could do without attracting too much attention that would pull you into this universe; assuming I'd only get one shot at doing something like that without God's permission. I knew you wouldn't mind; what with how often you day dream of being in this universe for whatever bizarre reason. I also started to sense your desire for me, which drove me crazy, since I couldn't act on it. God knew of this desire I had and your reciprocation and so he approved my use of the spell to bring you here, removing my requirement for stealth. He knew you would enjoy yourself more here; where I was allowed to woo you, than there; where you would have to marry some crummy human and I would have to watch you with him and probably end up falling eventually, but into anger toward a human." He smiled and pressed another, sloppier kiss on the back of my neck. My breath hitched. _Had he really done all that for me?_ I felt his grin on my neck. "I would do all that and more." He said, gently biting my collarbone.

"So, the wing sounds...?" I asked, looking at him. He smiled and pressed another forkful into my mouth.

"Spells in your universe are based more off ritual than off ingredients. This one was purely ritualistic. I had to fly around you ten times, say a prayer in enochian, and fly around you another three times."

I nodded in understanding. Suddenly the whole event made a lot more sense than it had before. "So when I got here..."

He smiled. "I had but to wait for you to write me into existence. This is, after all, _your_ universe, a gift to you from your heavenly father. I knew from the feelings I had gleaned off you that it wouldn't take long for you to write me back. I wasn't sure if I wanted to be part of Crowlthazar, especially knowing you were here and just out of reach, but I had eventually decided that I would be willing to risk it if it meant being able to be near you for the rest of eternity."

"But what did you do while you waited?"

"Nothing. I was in a sort of in-between state; not quite limbo, but not in either universe either. I was sort of frozen in space. I know what happened, but I didn't have to watch it or wait for it to happen. Don't worry, though," he said, catching some of my stray thoughts, "I don't remember it. I wasn't bored in anyway. It was like falling asleep after I cast the spell and waking up in that stupid warehouse where Cassie killed me and having to harass my two dear brothers for the location of this hidden fortress. After all, I added the enochian carvings to your ribs while we were still in transit to this universe, before I let go of you to appear in this."

I smiled at him, dodging his next forkful and pressing my lips to his enthusiastically, glad to finally have the full story of what happened. He tensed under me in surprise before putting his fork down and wrapping both arms firmly around my waist, opening himself up more fully to taste the pie on my tongue. He tasted wonderful, like strawberries and fresh rain water and a hint of the smell of freshly mown grass.

When we pulled away, I grinned; breathless from trying to absorb him into myself. He smiled and chuckled softly before pushing me off his lap gently and standing, grabbing the plate with the half finished pie and walking to the kitchen. I followed him, watching as he ate the pie. An enraptured look, much like the one that had fallen over the other four, appeared in his eyes as he moaned gently. He quickly polished off the last of the piece and grinned at me.

"That really is the most _heavenly_ king's pie I have ever tasted; and I have dined with Nebuchadnezzar and Cleopatra on separate occasions."

I blushed brightly again as he chuckled and washed our dishes. He placed them in the drying rack with the other dishes and took my hand, leading me into the library, where everyone else was waiting. When I got there, Gabe and Cas both advanced on me while the Winchesters watched from their places.

Gabe grinned at me and, when Balthazar backed up a few inches, wrapped me up in a hug. "Well, little sister, welcome to the family. You aren't one of us yet, but you're over halfway there, so I say, welcome early!" I smiled a little and thanked him before Balthazar shooed him off and put his hand back on my waist, rubbing circles into my hip with his thumb.

When Cas got to me, he smiled warmly and put his hand on my shoulder. "We bid you very welcome to the family, Kara. I only apologize that everyone is so torn and divided that we can't give you proper welcome."

I smiled at him. "Well, that's one thing I brought Gabe and Balthy back for; to help you with that." The aforementioned angels shot me looks, but I ignored them and returned the beaming smile that Cas had leveled on me gratefully.

Dean cleared his throat then. "So does this mean she's with us? How does this ritual work? How long does it take?"

Balthazar turned to him. "It is a spell from ancient times. After the Nephilim, some of our brethren decided they would rather have to train new angels than have more Nephilim born, so they created a spell that would turn a human into an angel, so that if we fell in love with a human, we could be with them without causing more trouble than was worth. You two could become angels if you wanted, I suppose, but since you would need a surrogate in order to have a child anyway, there is far less danger of you accidentally creating Nephilim than there is of Kara and I doing so."

I flushed at the mention of children, but after all, we were angelic mates or whatever, so did I really mind all that much that we were discussing children mere hours after deciding to do this? No, I most certainly did not; especially knowing the background of what happened from Balthazar's point of view. "In the meantime, if there's room, I'd prefer the bunker to anywhere else I could go." I said. The boys both nodded and I smiled.

"I thought that was the plan already," Sam said, "You stay here and keep us fat and happy and eating food that is actually delicious for once." Dean turned an affronted gaze on him and I flushed again. After being cooked for by my mother (who is an intimidatingly good cook) for so long, it would still take some getting used to before I was able to accept a compliment about my cooking without getting embarrassed.

Balthazar laughed. "And where are you boys going to get the meals when she no longer needs to eat, or needs a place to rest her head?"

Dean's face fell and Sam started pouting a little before I laughed. "Hey, just because I don't need to eat doesn't mean I can't still cook! Especially for these two flatterers!" The boys brightened up and Balthazar pouted at me. "You can always help me." I grinned at him and he groaned.

"Not if I'm busy helping little brother maintain peace, I can't!"

I rolled my eyes. "Balthy, I wasn't planning on being with you through that. The last thing you need is more distraction." At his pout, I said, "come on, let's be fair. It's not like Sam or Dean will be there either. You three can all suffer together." At that comment, Sam snorted, Dean rolled his eyes and I earned what can only be termed as bitch faces from the three angels.

"So," I said, clapping my hands. "Let's get down to business!"

"To defeat the Huns?" Balthazar asked, grinning and I snorted with laughter.

"Leave me alone!" I said, shoving him playfully. "I can't help the references that pop in my head!"

He grinned leeringly at me as I turned back to the others. "How do we do this ritual?" I asked. "Where do we start?"

Cas looked to Balthazar. "You must be mated first; in every sense of the word. That is the first step."

Gabe rolled his eyes and continued. "Then, we've got a list of ingredients a mile long to find. We can do that while you and my dear brother roll in the hay."

I flushed. "We-we mate first?"

Balthazar turned me to face him, staring into my eyes. "Did you expect anything different?"

"I don't- I've never-" He grinned at me, shining eyes swallowing me whole.

"I know. Add that to the long list of things I love about you." I flushed bright red again and looked away.

"Do... Do we have to do it here?" Gabe snorted and Sam and Dean flushed.

"No. In fact I think our dear hunters would prefer you _didn't_."

I looked to Balthazar, who regarded me for a moment before grinning. "I know just the place." He said, smiling at me as he took my hand and snapped his fingers. In an instant, we were in a large forest. "Recognize it?" He asked me, grinning.

I stared at the trees before shaking my head. I had never seen this place in my life before. Grinning, he took me to a tree and placed his hands on the tree, murmuring something in a soft, musical voice just loud enough for me to hear. It took me a moment to process what he had said, but when I did, I gasped.

 _Over earth and under sky,_

 _There is no other place for I._

It was the rhyme I had come up with for my character to use as a password to get into her home in the story that I had been writing when he first found me, the one with the transdimensional trees.

Balthazar grinned at me and took my hand, leading me into the doorway that opened in the tree, pulling me up the long stairway toward the central passage for the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

_Balthazar grinned at me and took my hand, leading me into the doorway that opened in the tree, pulling me up the long stairway toward the central passage for the forest._

When I woke up the next morning, I felt a soreness in certain parts that you're _not_ supposed to be sore in. I groaned, and Balthazar chose _then_ to read my mind.

"Oh, but Kara, darling, think of all that soreness as a reminder of all the _fun_ we had last night!"

I snorted and shook my head, groaning again as I felt Balthazar's very naked body pressed up against mine. "I don't know if I'll be able to walk."

Balthazar laughed and kissed me. "You forget who you're mated with." Suddenly, most of the soreness was gone. There was just a dull ache in the very center of my reproductive organs, like I'd slept too long with a tampon in. He grinned leeringly at me. "I'm leaving that little bit there. Consider it pay back for how badly you abused my oil glands last night." I flushed at the memory of his wings. I looked up and around, but they were nowhere to be seen.

"I've put them away, silly goose. We're about to return to my brothers and I think it better if they are the only ones to whom it is obvious what we did last night. Those Winchester boys may not react too well to the smell of my oil; especially since I've chosen you now. We can't avoid my dear brothers sensing it on you, but Sam and Dean shouldn't be able to tell."

I nodded and stood up, stretching my stiff muscles as Balthazar snapped his hands, dressing us both in our attire from last night. I grimaced at him. "I wish I had my pencils right now."

Balthazar shrugged. "Well, what do you want? I can dress you however you like."

"I want my dress right now." I said, remembering the comfortable skirt turned dress that I had gotten from a boutique last year.

Balthazar just smirked at me, and I was wearing the exact outfit I'd envisioned, right down to the bare feet. I grinned when I took his hand and we appeared in the kitchen of the bunker. When I pattered in, Dean, who had been in the process of cooking _something,_ said,

"Rise and shine, Sammy!"

I took a deep breath and said, "I sure hope you boys have a coffee shop nearby."

Dean's head whipped around and he grinned. "Morning, sunshine! You look like a princess today."

I shrugged. "So I wanted to dress up, what about it?"

His grin widened. "Want some breakfast?"

I smirked at him. "I thought I was cooking."

"Well you see," he said, "Some damn angel came in the middle of dinner and stole you away from us, something about consummating something, so I figured the happy couple would rather _eat_ food than _make_ it."

I smiled at him. "Thanks Dean, but you don't realize how addicting it is making food for you boys, knowing you'll appreciate it as much as you do."

We heard the door open and I looked up, smiling at the sight of Cas in Pjs. I looked to Dean, catching the same wide blown pupils Balthazar had been sporting last night and smirked at him. "Good morning, Cas."

"I'm glad to see you enjoyed your night, Kara." I flushed at the expression on Dean's face and looked away from him, before searching for my new mate. Cas smiled. "Don't worry, apparently there is a long list of groceries that you ran through in your head as soon as you were in the bunker. Oh, and also, your favorite coffee shop in Washington is open, so he's stopping by."

I flushed, smiling, touched by Balthazar's doting. I jumped when I heard a voice right behind me whisper in my ear. "That's not all you've been touched by." I whipped around and slapped a laughing Gabriel as he curled in on himself. Cas glared at his brother and Dean yelled,

"Hey! Lay off, Gabe! Leave her alone!"

"Guys? It's like, 7 am. What are you all doing up and why is Dean yelling?"

I shook my head at Sam. "Don't worry about it Sammy." I said, putting my hand on Dean's elbow and smiling gratefully.

"Gabriel, that was an extremely inappropriate thing to say. Why did you have to make a joke like that? I'd have thought you would be happy for our brother." Cas said, fixing his gaze on his older brother.

"Gabe, what'd you do?" Sam said.

Gabe just grinned and said, "nothing you wouldn't expect from me."

Sam rolled his eyes, then turned to me. "Hey, Kara, how are you feeling? You doing alright?"

I smiled and nodded. "I'm not so bad. I was super sore this morning, but I'm okay now."

"One of the perks of being mated with-"

"With an angel, yes, Balthy, I know. Where did you run off to?"

He grinned at me and handed me a travel mug. "One grande almond milk Salted Caramel Mocha for my favorite human."

I grinned at him and accepted it, taking a grateful sip and humming in contentment. "Also," he continued, "the list of groceries that you went through in your head when we got in; milk, orange juice, lemon juice, cranberry juice, -though I'm proud to say, these are the wrong kind of cramps, it won't help- bacon, eggs, bread, salt, pepper, avocados, coconut oil and, oh yes, chocolate." He waved the bar of 85% in my face. "Obviously a girl's best friend."

I grinned and stuck my tongue out at him before clapping and saying, "okay, let's get to work. Who's helping?" They all smiled at me and I grinned back. "Okay, Sam, you need some energy. Why don't you start the coffee?" He nodded and set to work. I dug in the cupboards and, after finding a suitable cup, set Gabe to cutting holes in the bread. I gave Cas the task of halving the avocados, and had Dean work with me on cooking the bacon. When asked what he could do, I sent Balthazar to stand in the corner. Catching my drifting thoughts, he grinned and wiggled his eyebrows at me, relaxing into the corner I had mentioned as he watched me, grinning at me as I did my best to focus on working with Dean to make the bacon. When Gabe was done, I had him bring the bread over, showing him how to add clumps of coconut oil to the pan and use those to cook frogs in a hole with the bread and eggs. When Dean had cooked up a respectable heap of bacon and covered it, I beckoned Balthazar over and gave him the bacon, which he put on the table. When Cas was done, I had him slice into the avocados and then scoop the insides out, mashing them up into a paste. When that was done, and a few drops of lemon juice had been added to help ensure freshness, he covered that bowl and it, too, was brought to the table. He and Balthazar busied themselves setting the table then, quietly discussing the details of the spell, when and where it should happen. When the coffee was done, I poured Sam a cup, afraid if he did it himself he would spill and burn his hand. He accepted it gratefully before leaving to go nurse his cup of coffee at the table. With the bacon done and only the frogs in a hole to focus on, I sent the boys into the dining room and finished the last of the frogs in a hole on my own. I took a blessed sip of my coffee and went back to work as I heard some wings that I _definitely_ recognized. I grinned and leaned back into Balthazar's chest as I felt his hands snake around to rest on my pelvis.

"One thing I don't understand; why call it frogs in a hole? It's just eggs in bread."

I shrugged. "I read it in a fan fiction one time and thought it was a cute way of referring to it."

He laughed, shaking his head as he pressed a kiss to the base of my skull. "Well, anyway, Cassie and Gabe and I have almost worked out the details for the spell. It should be ready by this evening; barring any serious complications or delays in getting the rest of the ingredients. Why don't you spend the day with the knuckleheads? Maybe they can teach you a thing or two about handling a gun."

I smiled up at him and let him kiss me. "I wouldn't mind that." I said. "Although, I would prefer to practice with a bow, but maybe we can do both."

He smiled. "As soon as we find the rest of these ingredients, I want you all to myself."

"You'll get me to yourself." I promised, smiling. "Tonight. After the spell."

"And I'm going to have Sam watch you; make sure you are eating. I don't want you forgetting and skipping meals again, little lady."

I grinned at him. "Sir, yessir!" I said, mock saluting him and laughing when he rolled his eyes. He helped me bring the frogs in a hole in and I showed everyone how I eat mine; with mushed avocado on top and some bacon on the side. I poured myself a cup of cranberry juice and guzzled it, but found that Balthy was right; it _didn't_ help. At all.

I scowled playfully at him when he smirked at me triumphantly. He winked at me and I went back to eating. We were all seated like normal people today, one person per chair. I was sitting with Balthy on my right and Cas on my left, then Dean was on the other side of him and Gabe and Sam were across the table from us. I couldn't help chuckling when Sam kept fidgeting.

"Uncomfortable there, Samsquatch?" I asked, grinning when Gabriel looked at me and winked conspiratorially. Sam grimaced into his frogs in a hole and shook his head, flushing a deeper red than I had ever seen him.

"And I thought Kara was merciless." Balthazar said, raising an eyebrow at his brother. "You shouldn't make promises you can't keep Gabriel."

Gabe pouted at his brother. "Come on, Balthazar! I'm not! I can keep this one!"

"Not today, you can't; you're helping Cassie and I today to find all the ingredients for that spell so that Kara and I can bond _properly_. She's my mate, now I want her to be my angel as well, and you promised to help with that."

"What, _today_? Can't we have just _one_ day off?"

I smiled at him. "Sure we can; as soon as you guys help me sprout some wings. Then we can have a day off before you all start training me."

"Besides," Balthazar said, "We should really put her physical training off until her wings are no longer as sensitive."

"That could take months, Balthazar." Cas said, raising an eyebrow. "Should we really wait that long?"

"She can train with the Winchesters while we wait for that. You boys won't take advantage of her wings while in training, will you?" He raised a challenging eyebrow at the brothers, who stared at him.

Dean furrowed his brows. "What's there going to be to take advantage of?"

"Her wings will be incredibly sensitive," Cas said, "If you somehow hurt them, it will be ten times as painful for her as it would be for one of us. I'm sure Balthazar would be happy to help toughen them up," here Balthazar grinned at me leeringly, whispering about the payback he had promised last night, and I shivered involuntarily; suddenly aware of how much trouble I had gotten myself in. "but in the meantime, you mustn't hurt them. You can't toughen them up in fighting, only in mating."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Alright. We promise not to fight dirty. Happy?"

Balthazar sighed. "I suppose I am." I considered standing up and cleaning my plate and he looked at my half full plate and shook his head. "No, you're eating all of that. You're not going on a half meal again. How are you not hungry? You eat this much every morning back in the other universe."

I shrugged. "Smaller appetite? I'm just less hungry." I stiffened when he leaned over to me.

"Or you're hungry for something else." He whisper growled in my ear. I shivered again, almost wishing the day were already over. He chuckled and put his hand on my thigh, physically restraining me. "Now, eat. We will sit here all day if we have to, but you _are_ finishing your breakfast."

I sighed and picked up my fork, rolling my eyes and shoveling another bite into my mouth. It wasn't that I didn't want to eat, per se, everything just always gets discussed at meals and I like to be in on the conversation. Balthazar rolled his eyes and said, "Yes, but I want you to be well fed. You need to keep up your strength."

Gabe rolled his eyes. "Wow, Balthazar, what happened to privacy?"

Balthazar shot a glare at his brother. "We mated. That's what happened." Gabe smirked and rolled his eyes again, before standing up with Cas and the Winchesters and clearing the table around Balthazar and I. I felt his eyes on me and flushed, rolling my eyes when he raised his eyebrow at me and returning to my breakfast. When the last bite had finally been eaten, he grinned, kissed me, and took my plate. "Good. That's done. Now, I don't mind if you only make everyone sandwiches for lunch, but if you do, you better eat all of yours. I will know if you don't." He looked at me, his tone deadly serious and I sighed.

"Being a little overbearing there, don't you think, Balthy?"

He grinned. "I'm an angel. You're not. I'm a little more powerful than you, at least for the time being. I think I can afford to." I rolled my eyes, wishing I could wipe that cocky smirk off his face, but settling for running my fingers down the place where I knew his wings connected to his back. He shivered and glared at me, and, knowing I was digging myself into a deeper and deeper hole and arranging for worse torture than I had ever felt before as soon as I grew wings, I grinned and gently pinched him just to the side of his spine, where I knew his upper right wing connected to his back. He growled, snatching my hand away from his back and practically dragging me into the kitchen. He washed my plate and put it away, then pulled me to the library, where everyone else was waiting for us. As the angels discussed where to start looking for the ingredients to the spell, Sam and Dean turned to me.

"Dude, if we're going to train you, you need to be wearing pants or shorts. No skirts in the training room."

I sighed and pouted at Dean before turning to go look for my pencils so I could write myself an outfit, but a moment later was clothed in exactly the clothes I was going to go write into existence. I looked up in surprise in time to see Balthazar wink at me before going back to planning where to go with the others. I smirk and turned back to Dean. "Better?"

Sam raised an eyebrow and Dean smirked. "Yeah. Better. We can work with that. Where do you want to start?"

I shrugged. "Well, Balthy suggested guns. I would prefer to do archery, but I suppose I should probably at least learn to handle a shotgun, since you can't really stick salt in an arrowhead very feasibly."

Sam nodded. "I was thinking of doing hand to hand as well, but then I realized that we may as well get you going on that _after_ you get your wings, because if we train you in hand to hand combat now, when you get your wings you will need to completely relearn your balance for everything, because you will have all new weight on your back."

I furrowed my brow. "Shouldn't I be able to put them away when I don't need them?"

"That will come in time, but at first you won't be able to hide them. You will need to train that with Blathazar beforehand." Cas said, looking over to where we stood, planning.

I nodded. "Alright, so where do we want to start? Shotguns?" Dean smirked.

"You sure you're ready for that kind of kick?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "I need to learn to aim without letting the kick interfere."

Dean nodded and held his hands up in defense. "Alright. Well, why don't we go down to the shooting range?" He turned to the angels, who were all staring at us. "Don't you guys have ingredients to find?" They nodded, and Balthazar advanced on me. He took my hand and kissed it, a small smirk on his face when I leaned in and kissed his cheek. As soon as I stepped away, he was gone. I looked over at the boys, both of whom had silly half smirks on their faces; the three of us alone as our angels left, traveling all over the world for the ingredients.

Making a face at an idea I suddenly had, I pulled out my phone, dialing Cas' number and holding it to my ear. Sam and Dean both turned to me in confusion. The phone rang once and then Cas picked it up.

"Kara? We just left. What is it?"

"I had an idea; why don't you just give me the list of ingredients and I can just write them into existence here? I do still have those papers."

"We had considered that, but this is an extremely powerful spell; given Gabriel and Balthazar's pasts, we had agreed that it would be safer if the entire fanbase didn't know everything of how the spell works, so we decided, since your story would most likely include the rituals, we needed to keep the ingredient list secret. Remember; this story is online now."

I nodded my understanding, ignoring the fact he couldn't actually see me. "Okay, that makes sense." I said. "Happy hunting."

"Thank you, Kara. Enjoy training with Sam and Dean."

I smiled. "Thanks. See you later, Cas." When I hung up and turned to the brothers, Sam had his brow raised.

"That's a good idea. I assume since everyone hasn't already returned, Cas was able to dissuade you?"

I nodded. "The story's online. The last thing we need is broadcasting how to turn a human into an angel, especially considering that the primary requirement is having had sex with an angel, and goodness knows how many people Balthazar and Gabriel had sex with during their little 'live life on the wild side' phase."

Sam conceded my point and nodded, and the three of us walked down to the shooting range. When we got there, Dean showed me the proper shooting stance, helping me to brace myself properly so that the kick from the shotgun doesn't destroy my aim, like it has in the past. When I put it up to my shoulder, Sam came up and helped.

"No, no, no, no, no." He said, moving it from my shoulder to the front where my shoulder meets my chest. "Place it here. And brace it flush against you; any space between the butt of the gun and your body will increase the amount of force against you exponentially. I'm sure Balthazar would _not_ be a happy camper if he came back to his mate with a dislocated or broken shoulder."

I nodded, squeezing the shotgun to my shoulder where he had me place it. It was uncomfortable, but not nearly as uncomfortable as a dislocated shoulder would surely feel. I sighted down the barrel and squeezed the trigger, wincing as the kick tore through the gun and yanked it up three inches from where I was aiming, which translated to a difference on the target of almost six inches. I winced at it, but Sam just grinned.

"That was pretty good." He said, smiling at me and clapping me on the shoulder that _wasn't_ throbbing.

"I missed by at least half a foot, Sammy."

"But you hit the target." Dean said, shooting me a lopsided grin. "That's better than Sammy when he shot his first shotgun."

Sam shot him a bitchface. "Dude, I was _nine_." I snickered and Dean beamed at me. When Sam rolled his eyes and glared at both us, Dean threw his arm around my shoulder and grinned. I smiled, putting the shotgun down and going to the armory, searching for a bow. The brothers followed me, asking what I was after before helping me find a bow. The only one we found was buried in the very bottom of a stash of rifles. When we picked it up, it was only about four feet tall and much too heavy for me to pull. I sighed and walked back to the cupboard where Gabe had stashed my story last night, grabbing a pencil as I went. I wrote into my angel's head.

 _I have a task for you when you get the chance, Balthy._ I wrote. _I want a bow that will work for me but I don't know how heavy the draw should be and I don't know how tall it should be. I want a long bow, but I've never gotten myself one before. Maybe something like what I used to use back home for archery lessons._ I stood to put everything back in the cupboard.

When I returned to the armory, Dean offered me a pistol; saying that if I was going to learn to shoot one gun, I may as well shoot them all. "Besides," he said, "We've probably got some time before Balthazar gets you that bow." I nodded, taking the pistol and setting my shooting stance, as before. Apparently, I didn't do it _quite_ right, because Sam came over, nudged me a couple of times, and whispered a few pointers in my ears.

"Not quite _that_ wide of a stance." He'd mutter, or "You want to straighten your arm, but don't stiffen it." Or he'd smirk and say, "And keep both eyes open when you're aiming. You need your depth perception." Once satisfied with my stance, he backed away, letting me take aim at the target and shoot.

When I had emptied the clip and turned away sighing, there was a note on the table. Raising an eyebrow at the boys, I disassembled the gun. When they both shrugged, I handed the gun to Dean and went over to the note. I opened it and read,

 _I'd rather not get blood on these clothes, so I didn't bother to interrupt your shooting. You're doing very well. There's a present for you on the dining room table._ I smiled warmly and went to the dining room. There on the table, was an extremely light bow. It was almost as long as I was tall. I think if I hadn't known where it came from, I'd have argued it was impossible. It was wood, but it was such an incredibly light, springy wood that it could easily have come from the woods of Lothlorien. I grinned, grabbing the accompanying wrist guards and full quiver, and running back to the shooting range.

"Got it!" I cried, grinning. "No more of your loud pistols or silly rifles! I'm going to shoot a _real_ weapon!"

Sam and Dean laughed, shaking their heads at my enthusiasm. I just grinned and started testing it's tensile strength, finding it exactly matched my old bow from back home. _Finally_ something I could definitely shoot!

"You want me to bring the target closer?" Dean asked. I glared at him, offended that he would think I needed coddling on my own weapon of choice. He held his hands up, chuckling nervously. "Sorry; You got it. No coddling. Don't shoot me!"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't shoot my allies." I said before taking my stance again. I remembered all the things my (rather _handsy_ , come to think of it) archery instructor had told me. I took aim, sucked in a deep breath, and released my arrow with my breath, letting the arrow sail through the air and sink itself into the target. Dean grunted in surprise and, when he went out to look at the target, my arrow was quivering, head deep, in the left side of the bullseye.

"I'm impressed." He said.

"Put a devil's trap on one of your arrows, and you could definitely incapacitate a demon; keep him from smoking out."

I grinned. "And that's with my current strength. Just wait 'till I'm an angel." The boys both grinned, first at me, then each other. I nocked another arrow and took my stance, but whipped around on instinct and drew my arrow when I heard an arrival behind me.

Gabriel grinned and held up his hands. "So I take it training is going well?"

Sam grinned. "Dude, Gabe, you should see her shoot that thing! It's awesome!"

Gabriel smirked. "Well, she _was_ trained by the best archer in the family."

I stared at him. "What do you mean?" He just winked and sauntered into the kitchen. I glared at his receding form, wanting so badly to sink an arrow feather deep in the dick, but I didn't want to lose an arrow, and I remembered telling Dean that I didn't shoot allies. I sighed and unstrung my bow. Gabe was back, and that meant Cas and Balthy would be back soon as well.

"Oh, don't stop practicing on my account!" He called over his shoulder, chuckling and waggling his ears at Sam, who looked like he was getting a migraine. Dean and I grinned at each other. It was obvious Sam's jeans were getting a _little_ too tight, but we left him alone, considering the torture Gabe must be inflicting on him right now.

At least, I did.

"Hey Sammy, you- uh, you okay there?" Dean asked, his voice thick with amusement as we made our way to the kitchen. I smacked his chest and he grunted. "What was that for?"

"Leave your poor brother alone! He's getting enough crap from Gabriel!"

Dean rolled his eyes. "Fine, whatever." When we got to the kitchen, Gabriel turned. "Seriously, we're not actually done yet. I'm not here to stay. We'll be back around six." He pointed at me. " _You_ haven't eaten your lunch yet, young lady, and dear old Balthy has become a worry wart in his old age."

I rolled my eyes. "It's barely 12:30 _,_ Gabe. I've got until 4 before lunchtime is officially over."

"Well, why put it off?" He said brightly. "Come on, food for the humans!" He grinned, snapping and producing three subway sandwiches.

He handed me mine and I peeked inside. "How did you know my favorite sandwich and what goes in it?" I raised my eyebrows.

Gabe rolled his eyes. "You forget how long dear _Balthy_ has been watching you, Kara."

Right. Balthazar had been an angel on my shoulder for at least four years now. That would mean he was there through high school and what little college I went for. I winced at that thought.

Gabe rolled his eyes. "I _seriously_ can't wait for you to get your wings and tune into our wavelength. This is _seriously_ annoying. Balthazar says if he hadn't tuned in so early, he'd have missed all your best stories."

I smirked. "Thanks, messenger boy."

Gabriel grunted. "God, I hate my job." I laughed and clapped him on the back, taking my sandwich and following the brothers when Gabe disappeared, going back to hunting down the ingredients he still needed to find for the spell. We took the food down to the shooting range, and then both brothers sat me down and made sure I ate my sandwich, not wanting to suffer the wrath of an angel. I just rolled my eyes. I knew Balthazar wouldn't really hurt them, not unless he wanted to alienate the only brothers that knew he was alive again, but I knew the threats were enough for Sam and Dean. They scarfed down their sandwiches then watched me until I had eaten the _entire_ foot long sandwich that Gabriel had gotten me. It's funny; back home I would have eaten the entire sandwich without a fuss or a problem, but here in this universe, my appetite seemed to be much smaller; it took me twice as long as it should have to finish the sandwich, but the boys weren't backing down, and as Gabriel had been so kind as to point out the day before, they _were_ both bigger than me, so I was kind of stuck eating the entire sandwich in one sitting.


	5. Chapter 5

I continued training with the boys until dinner time; having shooting contests with them both. I may have gloated a bit when it became clear that I was a far better shot with my bow than either boy was with any of the guns, but I figured since I was the cook, I could get away with it. They were both good sports about it, just rolling their eyes good naturedly when I told them that their targets didn't go back far enough.

Cas was the first of the angels to show up, appearing right behind Dean as he was trying to find a way to move the targets back even farther so I could practice sniping with my bow. We had discussed setting up an outdoor shooting range, but we weren't sure where we could go. Then Cas appeared, startling the hunter and making him drop the target, and I grinned when he turned around and gave Cas a huge hug.

They both walked over to where we stood. "I was able to find my ingredients." Cas said, "But Gabriel had trouble with a few of his, so Balthazar joined him when he was done finding his list. Having the shortest list, Balthazar was done within half a day, but he has been helping Gabriel with his ingredients."

I frowned. "What; did Gabriel get a longer list than the rest of you?"

Cas shook his head. "Well, no, but some of them we had to travel time to do, so those went on Gabriel's list, because he is the most powerful of the three of us, being an archangel."

I nodded. That made sense. "Where are they now?"

Cas smiled. "Africa. Don't worry, they are done with the time traveling. Thankfully, with those items, the time travel was the hard part. The rest of it was relatively easy. The only reason Balthazar had to help him was because Gabriel would not have been strong enough to both travel back and find the ingredients in a reasonable time before coming back. Bringing Balthazar with him made the time travel a little tougher, but Balthazar was then able to do most of the wing work, and Gabriel was able to rest and conserve his strength for the trip back."

I nodded. That made sense. "When are they going to be back?" I asked. Cas just smiled at me.

"Right now." I heard Gabriel right behind me and I whipped around, wrapping him up in a big hug.

"Thanks for helping, Gabe." I said, grinning.

He laughed. "Of course, kiddo!" I turned to watch Balthazar turn a glare on Sam, then Gabriel said, "Oh, give me half a mo. I'll be right back." With a snap he was gone.

"I thought I told you to make sure she ate lunch, Sam."

Sam stared at Balthazar. "What are you talking about? Gabriel dropped lunch by around noon!"

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "Please I've been with him all day. We never stopped here long enough during lunch time."

I looked at Sam and Dean, who shrugged then turned back to Balthazar. "Then who gave us lunch? Because I'm pretty sure it was Gabe!"

Suddenly, Balthazar smirked and said, "now, darling, high school was the best time! That was when all my favorite stories came out!"

I rolled my eyes. "I think I know what's going on."

Suddenly Gabe showed up in front of us again, looking a little winded, but none the worse for wear, considering he just spent a whole day traveling in time. "There. Lunch is taken care of!"

I smirked and rolled my eyes. "Of course you traveled back in time to deliver lunch. Why not?"

Gabe grinned at me, and I shook my head. "So, who's the greatest archer in your family? I'm _dying_ to know!" Gabe laughed and looked at Balthazar.

"You get to explain _that_ one, Balthy!"

Balthazar shot a glare at his brother before turning to me. "I- I am." He admitted with a sigh. I stared at him.

"Y- you trained me?" I asked, staring at him with a newfound appreciation for the handsiness of my archery teacher.

"I wasn't _trying_ to be creepy, I just couldn't resist. Even then, you kind of had a crush on me, and I had gotten permission to train you in archery, since you were constantly wishing you could be an archer anyway. Then you started thinking about me constantly, even sometimes unintentionally _praying_ to me, and it became rather hard to resist." He flushed and looked away. "I'm sorry." He whispered.

I grinned at him, but when he wouldn't look at me, I harrumphed, turning my grin to a pout. _Balthy, look at me_ , I prayed, but he ignored me. Huffing, I flounced over to where he stood in between a smirking Gabe and a smiling Cas. Going around behind him, I reached up and was about to lightly pinch him where I knew his wings met his back, but then I got an even better idea.

 _Castiel,_ I prayed. _You know wings as well as any angel. What's the trick to getting wings to come out, against the will of their owner?_ Cas raised an eyebrow at my question, but he came behind me and whispered in my ear;

"The oil glands meet the vessel at the lower back. If you pinch there, they will appear, but oil production will go into overdrive and it may lead to his automatic self defense kicking in. Think carefully before you do this."

I nodded before whispering back, "he needs to learn not to shut me out. This is a good lesson."

Cas shook his head at my reasoning, but walked away, crossing the room before looking at Gabe and motioning that he do so as well. Dean narrowed his eyes at us, but at Cas' motion, he stayed silent, shrugging noncommittally.

I reached over to Balthazar's lower back, examining where I was sure his glands were. I sent a mental picture to Cas and Gabriel. Cas sighed and avoided my gaze, but Gabe shook his head and motioned that I go lower. I followed Gabe's direction until he nodded, then reached in and pinched lightly, following with the same stroking motion I made when I was coaxing oil from them last night. I heard a strangled cry tear from Balthazar's lips and suddenly we were alone; back in the forest as we had been last night. He whirled on me.

"What was that for?"

I sighed. "Balthy, I gave you full warning I was doing it. I prayed to you that I would. You shut me out. If you hadn't you'd have seen that coming a mile away. If you'd been paying any attention at all to your surroundings instead of your own stupid guilt and insecurities, you'd have known _something_ was up. As soon as I asked Cas how to get your wings to appear, he and Gabe and the boys crossed to the other side of the room from us."

He glared at me. " _Don't_ do that again. I nearly killed you!"

I glared right back. "Don't shut me out! Balthy, my archery instructor was creepy, until you consider who it _was!_ Seriously, the fact that you were willing to go to those kind of lengths? Holy shit, that just makes me feel like the most important girl alive! Stop beating yourself up! You taught me everything I know! I'm practically a sniper now with a bow! You are the _best_ archery instructor _ever_! You can't just decide you're horrible without any input from the people who love you, Balthy! If you'd really been watching me for the past four years and reading my mind like you say you were, you'd know that that is one of my _biggest_ pet peeves! I'm your _mate._ Don't you think I deserve a say in how much you're worth?"

He sighed, deflating. "You _are_ the most important girl alive. Why would you doubt that?"

I shrugged. "Why would you doubt that you're amazing and I want to be with you?"

He smiled at that, a small smile, then sighed. "Come on, let's get my wings cleaned up so we can go back and have some dinner."

I grinned. "And why do we need to clean up those lovely wings?"

He smirked. "Well, we can't have you jumping me in the middle of dinner in front of everyone, can we?"

I sniggered. "Well, maybe we can. What are they going to do?"

He raised an eyebrow. "You know, my oil is an aphrodisiac for all unclaimed humans, and the boys haven't been claimed yet. I'd have smelled any oil on them, much like Gabriel and Castiel were able to smell mine on you. They may start coming after me themselves."

My eyes widened. "Okay, no, let's clean you up first."

He smirked at me. "I'm so glad we see eye to eye on this."

I stuck my tongue out at him. "Well? Are you going to explain how we clean all this oil off?"

"Well we _could_ have some more fun a little early, and then go back to get your wings." He grinned and winked saucily at me. I laughed, blushing a little at the idea, before shaking my head.

"No, I think I'll save myself a little pain right now and wait for tonight."

He smirked and waggled his eyebrows at me. "No pain, just fun here."

I rolled my eyes. "I feel like you would make me limp, simply as payback for how much I abused your wings."

He laughed out loud at that. "Oh please, I don't need payback. I'm getting mine tonight. I'm patient."

I smiled. "Either way, is there another option?"

He nodded. "Well, we could do holy water. That'll clean it off effectively. Obviously, everyone knows what happened, but at least this way, it won't be sitting on my feathers tempting the boys."

I nodded. "Can you get me a rosary? If you do, I can make some holy water."

Balthazar smiled and handed me a beaded string with a wooden cross on it that he had pulled out of thin air. I grinned, turning to the nearest tree and opening the door before dragging him inside and up the stairs. We ran up to where I knew the kitchen was and he smirked at me as I ran to the sink and filled it with water.

"You sure like overlooking certain details, don't you?"

I glared at him lightly before continuing with what I was doing, filling bottles with water before muttering the latin blessing and dropping the rosary in the water. After pulling the rosary out, I took the first bottle and turned to Balthazar. Grinning, I said,

"Now, let's clean those wings!" He grinned back and turned, giving me full access to his wings. Remembering what happened last time I touched those feathered limbs, I led him upstairs to the bedroom we occupied last night and lay him on the bed. I carded my hands gently through his feathers, smiling when he moaned, much as he had last night. When I poured the first bit of holy water on his feathers, he gasped and then groaned thickly in such a way that I could feel myself starting to get wet again.

 _This is_ not _going to end well._ I thought ruefully, thinking of his original offer.

I felt Balthazar smirk below me. "By the way, I forgot to tell you, holy water dissolves the oil effectively, but it does so by combining with it and letting off nearly irresistible pheromones. You must be incredibly horny right now."

I growled, irritated that he seemed to know what was going on. He hummed. "I love it when you growl at me." He whispered. I huffed. _That's it!_ I thought, thoroughly irritated that he was so smug.

I lifted the bottle of holy water and dumped it all over his wings, not caring to wipe it, or to even dry the sheets. I just poured more and more of it on him, listening to him gasp and whine and moan pitifully as I stroked his feathers, ignoring gentleness, covering them completely in holy water. I winced at the gathering moisture between my legs, and the quick pebbling of my nipples, but I ignored them in favor of getting him cleaned up and returning to the others. When I was done, I looked down and his jeans had tented. I sighed.

"I'm not helping you with that. I told you before that I want to wait until tonight, and horny as I am, god dammit I meant it!" I said firmly, crossing my arms and glaring at him; daring him to protest. He just sighed and stood up, snapping it away and grinning at me.

"You know, I could help you, if you'd let me."

"No. I'll be okay. I just need some time to myself."

He smirked. "As you wish. Pray when you need me." With that, he disappeared.

I sighed, heading for the bathroom. It took a _long_ shower and a lot of scalding hot water, but I was finally not only clean, but a lot more relaxed than I had been in a long time. I stepped out of the shower and prayed.

 _Okay, I'm done, Balthy, but I need new clothes, so I'm not dressed yet._

"That's okay, darling, I prefer you this way."

I whipped around and smiled at him. "As much as I wish we could just lounge around naked all day, I need to go back and start dinner."

"I already talked to them. Dean is alright making dinner." Balthazar said with a smile before I pouted at him.

I stomped. "Balthy! I wanna make dinner! Besides, what happened to 'you need to make sure you eat'?"

He rolled his eyes, grinning at me. "Alright, alright. I'll bring you back there. What did you wanna wear?"

I sighed, gnawing my bottom lip. "I kinda wanna wear a dress again, but I don't want to seem _too_ girly. What should I do?"

Balthazar crooked an eyebrow at me before rolling his eyes. He snapped and I was suddenly dressed in exactly the dress I wanted to wear, complete with the high heels I had been debating on. I stumbled a little with the sudden change in foot position, but recovered quickly and kissed his cheek.

"It's not too much?" I asked, worried the others would think me silly.

He rolled his eyes. "Kara, you _are_ a girl, and you look amazing in that. If they can't get over themselves and accept your gender then they have _a lot_ of growing up to do."

I smiled, accepting his reassurances before being gathered in for a hug. He held me for a few minutes and I just stood there, cherishing it, until I heard someone clear their throat. Confused, I looked up to find we were in the bunker's kitchen, and Balthazar had backed up a bit. Dean was looking at me with a fond grin on his face.

"You know, you keep wearing things like that and Sam and I are going to have to carry shotguns everywhere we take you."

I blushed, looking down with a small smile, not quite sure what to say. I felt a hand lift my chin and Dean was grinning at me again. "Hey," he said softly. "You look really good. Don't be embarrassed by that. Balthazar sure knows how to make you look amazing."

I smiled. "Thanks Dean."

He wrapped an arm around me in a small hug before turning back to the kitchen. "Alright, chief, what's the plan for dinner?"

My eyes widened. I hadn't made any plans yet. "Um... How about lasagna?"

Dean grinned. "Sounds good to me! How do you make lasagna?"

"I...I have no idea." I whispered. "I've never done it before."

Balthazar wrapped his arms around my waist from behind me gently before saying, "Cassie does. Why don't we have him give you the general idea and we can go from there?"

I nodded, looking to Dean with a question on my face. Dean grinned and closed his eyes for a minute, and Cas walked in, amusement written all over his face. "You know, Dean," he said, "there are about a million better ways you could have worded that."

Dean just grinned and winked saucily at his angel. "But no better way to get you in here with a grin on your face."

Cas sniffed, trying not to laugh and looked away from his hunter, grinning and shaking his head. He walked up to me smiling, and instead of putting his fingers to my forehead like he normally does, his smile widened to a grin and he wrapped me up in a big hug, pulling me out of Balthazar's grip slightly. "You look incredible." He whispered in my ear, squeezing me tight. I flushed and thanked him quietly before an onslaught of images shot to my brain. He released me and I knew exactly how to cook lasagna. I grinned at him in thanks and he nodded his acknowledgment to me. I turned around to face Balthazar and kissed him on the cheek, making sure he knew exactly what I needed for dinner. He grinned and disappeared, and I went into the main room, where I toed off my heels, about done with the false height and the irritation on my ankles. When I walked back into the kitchen, Sam and Gabe had joined Dean and Cas and they both grinned at me.

"Well, little sister," Gabe said, "You sure are making a turnout today. It seems every time you and my dear brother leave, you're in a new dress when you get back."

"You got a problem with that? Maybe I just like reminding you guys that I really am a girl." I said, raising an eyebrow at him.

Sam smirked. "Well, I know I don't need reminding. You look great, Kara."

I smiled. "Thanks, Sammy."

Gabriel grinned at me. "I think you'll fit in just fine around here."

I looked around at the others. "I'm sorry. Were any of you doubting that?"

When they all shook their heads, Gabriel grinned. "That's not what I meant. I meant you'll get along alright with _all of us_. _Everyone_. 'On earth as it is in heaven'."

I smiled. "Thanks Gabe."

He grinned and winked at me before Balthazar came back in carrying groceries.

"Here we are," he said, "all the ingredients you need to make lasagna!" I grinned and kissed his cheek before setting everyone to work on dinner. When everything was prepped and the lasagna was in the oven, the angels shared how the ritual for the spell was going to work.

"We've already mixed all the ingredients together," Gabe said, "so now all we've got to do is the incantation and the rituals and you should transform." He said.

"Will I gain grace, or will I still have a soul?" I asked.

"We're turning you into a fully fledged angel, darling; you're going to be getting grace. How else would you be able to hear prayers directed at you? Besides if you had a soul, the first few times we played with your wings would likely kill you before you really had a chance to toughen up." I nodded. What Balthazar said made sense, at least if you consider it through the lens of a few extra fan fictions I've read. Which I'm pretty sure were being taken into account for this universe.

"Alright. So, how long does this ritual take? I mean can we do it and be done in time for dinner to come out of the oven, or do we need to eat dinner first?"

Cas frowned in thought. "It may take longer than the lasagna, but I doubt it. However, from what I've heard from other angels who have met changed angels, it takes a lot of energy to turn a soul into grace. You're going to want a full stomach." I looked to Gabriel, then Balthazar, who both nodded, so I shrugged.

"Alright, well, I guess we'll do the ritual after dinner, then."

When the guys all grinned at the prospect of watching me turn angelic, I smirked and turned to the timer. We still had twenty minutes before we could take out the lasagna.

"Kara," Dean caught my attention. "What about garlic bread? We could make garlic bread."

I looked at him and nodded. "Good plan. Balthy could I get some bread and garlic?"

Balthazar smirked at me and snapped some ready to bake garlic bread into existence. I grinned and put it in the oven with the lasagna. As soon as I straightened and turned around, I jumped at the sight of a Kit Kat bar under my nose.

"Trust me when I say you're going to want this." Gabriel said, grinning at me as he waved the candy in my face. Grimacing at him, I grudgingly took the bar from him. I looked to Cas who shook his head, then looked pleadingly to Balthazar who rolled his eyes and sighed. Suddenly, the candy bar in my hand was a clif bar in my favorite flavor; high in protein and sugar and whatever else I might need. Thanking God, I was about to open it when I heard a snort.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Why would she want one of those, Balthazar? Those things are disgusting!"

"They're much higher energy than that disgusting thing you tried to pass off as a candy bar. It wasn't even real chocolate!" Balthazar said, rolling his eyes again, this time at his brother. "If you're going to try to force candy down my mate's throat, at least make it something that is actually worthy of being called candy. Or at least something palatable." He murmured the last bit under his breath and I grinned at him as I opened the clif bar, taking a huge bite as Gabe grimaced and mimed gagging. I just laughed.

"I tell you what, Gabe," I said around my full mouth, "I'm apparently going to be starving after this transformation, at least until I've recharged. Why don't you have a pile of skittles and whatever kind of high energy, low nutrition crap that you normally eat ready and waiting for me? I'm sure you know better than I what will make me feel better once I've got grace!"

Balthazar groaned and rolled his eyes. "Don't encourage him, Kara! He'll bury you in Kit Kats!"

I grinned at Gabe. "I'm sure he can do better than _that_ , Balthy." I said, not breaking eye contact with Gabe so that he would know it was most _definitely_ intended as a challenge. The archangel grinned.

"Oh, you are _so_ on, little sister!" He cried, snapping himself out of the room to start plotting what kind of candy he was going to bury me in as soon as I shifted. I grinned and turned around to see Sam laughing and shaking his head.

"I can't decide whether I hope he wins or loses." The taller Winchester said. "Either way, he's going to be insufferable for the next week." I sniggered, and after a bit, Dean joined me.

"Well, it sucks to be you. Don't worry, Sammy; if anyone can calm him down, it'd be you." I winked at him and his ears flamed bright red. He shook his head and sighed before heading out of the kitchen to find his archangel; leaving Dean, Cas, Balthazar, and I in the kitchen together.

Cas smiled at Dean and then turned to Balthazar. "Brother, would you be willing to help Dean go through the ritual as well? Obviously not today, but perhaps next week?"

Balthazar smiled at his little brother. "Cassie, you know Gabriel and I purposely collected enough ingredients to perform this spell on three humans. We'll just need more of everything that was on your list. Turning all of them was the plan. Tonight we turn Kara, and then later, we can turn the boys. Were you planning to mate with your little hunter anytime soon?"

"Hey!" Dean protested with a grin. "Who're you calling little?" I laughed when Balthazar rolled his eyes and muttered something about 'petty humans'.

"I'm sure Cas doesn't care either way, Dean. He'll still love you, even if you _are_ tiny."

Dean glared at me and I cackled as Cas blushed and looked away from us both.

Balthazar sighed dramatically. "So touchy. I wasn't even referring to that, Dean. You're a human. That makes you tiny. I don't care about your dick size. It's not something I ever want to find out. _That_ is for my little brother, who seems to have wrapped himself around your little finger with that 'more profound bond' you share."  
Cas glared at his brother. "We _do_ share a more profound bond, Balthazar. You know this."

Balthazar grinned and winked at him. "Yes, brother, I think you've pointed it out enough."

I snickered and Dean rolled his eyes before glaring at us. "Anyway," Balthazar continued, "You never answered my question, little brother. Do you plan to mate with Dean anytime soon?"

Cas nodded. "Tonight."

Balthazar smiled warmly. "Good. Don't forget to take turns, boys."

Dean's eyes widened and Cas raised an eyebrow coolly as he regarded his brother. The contempt in his eyes caused me to snort. When Dean and his angel both leveled stares on me, I turned into Balthazar, burying my face in his shoulder as I did my best not to howl; tears streaming down my cheeks as I tried to muffle myself with his sleeve. I felt Balthazar lift me off his shoulder and pull me into his chest, where I clutched at his shirt.

"Is something wrong?" The sound of Sam's voice caused me to calm slightly, gasping for breath as I tried to wipe my face on Balthazar's soaked chest.

Balthazar shook his head. "She just randomly decided that Dean and Castiel glaring at her together at the same time is one of life's great hilarities. She's having trouble now keeping herself silent."

I gasped for breath, wiping my eyes. "Oh!" I sighed. "I don't even know why that was so funny, it just was!" Balthazar smirked at me.

"You're sleep deprived, darling."

Dean rolled his eyes. "What have you been doing to that girl that's got her so sleep deprived she is laughing that hard at nothing?"

Balthazar shrugged. "It actually doesn't take as much as you'd think. She has a sensitivity to sleep that can cause adverse reactions at the drop of a hat. And we didn't exactly go to bed right away last night; besides, she was also laughing at your reaction to my reminder that you take turns."

Gabriel grinned as he walked in. "Looks like Sammy and I won't be the only ones having some fun tonight!"

Sam flushed and glared at him and he grinned leeringly at the moose. Just then, the timer went off, and I rushed to the oven. I opened it just in time for Balthazar to pull me away before pulling the lasagna out. When I glared at him, he simply said, "hand." And handed the lasagna to Gabriel, before pulling the garlic bread out. I rolled my eyes and pulled the Winchester brothers aside before we got to the table.

"Hey guys," I said quietly. They both raised their eyebrows, waiting for me to continue as they turned to me fully. "I-I don't want to sit alone on my chair tonight like I did this morning." I studied my bare feet until Sam cleared his throat.

"So...?" He asked, clearly wanting to eat the food I had made.

"Would either of you be weirded out if I sat on Balthy like I did last night?"

They both stared at me, and this time it was Dean who broke first. He snorted, and Sam quickly followed, before both boys were laughing at me without much hope of stopping. Dean wiped his eyes. "Kara, I don't know how much you remember from last night, but no one was really 'alone on a chair', as you put it." When I folded my arms and pouted, Sam smiled and put his hand on my shoulder.

"And again I find myself saying, 'I promise not to care'. Are you going to take me seriously this time?"

I flushed and looked away. Dean put his arm around my shoulders. "Seriously, Kara, you've basically become a little sister to us. No one's going to care what you wear or who or what you sit on. Just relax." I smiled and nodded, hugging first Dean, then Sam.

"Thank you." I whispered in both their ears. They both grinned at me and I walked into the dining room, flanked by two of the biggest heroes in my life.

When we got there, Gabe said "finally!"

Sam smirked and rolled his eyes before poking the archangel. Gabe pouted before Sam raised an eyebrow, then Gabe grinned and hopped up, letting Sam take the chair and hopping on Sam's lap, eliciting a small grunt from Sam. Dean had put his hand on Cas' shoulder, and Cas had immediately stood up, allowing Dean to be seated before relaxing into Dean's lap. I smiled. Sometimes it's amazing how quickly relationships can grow out of close friendships. I felt a hand on my arm and looked down to see Balthazar gazing up at me in concern. "Are you alright?" He asked quietly. I just smiled and settled into his lap sideways, putting my head on his shoulder and kissing his neck as he wrapped his arms around my waist. "Are you done being worried about them getting mad at you yet?" He whispered into my hair. I smiled and nodded against him, then felt his hand go up to my shoulder, his arms tightening around me. "Good." I felt his smile press to my ear before he directed me to sit up. Gabriel served me some of my own food.

"You need to eat up, Kara, or you're going to regret it once we're done with the spell." I nodded and picked up my fork, turning toward the table so that my back was to my angel. His hands settled on my hips as I ate, taking his job from yesterday as I fed him forkfuls of the lasagna. Once again, I was rewarded with moans and rolling eyes as the boys all hungrily devoured the lasagna I made, complimenting me on it whenever they took a breath and finishing nearly all of it, leaving an extra piece this time for Balthazar and I so that we could each have a slice, instead of sharing one.

This time, Balthazar and I finished at the same time as the others, and all of us took the dishes to the sink, washing and drying them before putting them away and adjourning to the study, where all the ingredients for the spell were set up. There, the angels took over, directing everyone where everything went. Balthy took my hand and had me stand still right in front of him, then directed Dean to sprinkle salt all around us. Cas took some of each of the mystery ingredients I wasn't allowed to know the origin of and mixed them together, crushing a few leaves of this and the bones of that, before pouring in some holy oil and mixing it all together with one of Balthazar's feathers, muttering a few words of enochian as he did so. He took a few drops of my blood that he had collected from me that morning before leaving and sprinkled it in, then walked up and drizzled the concoction over the salt circle that Dean had set up. He nodded to Balthazar, who leaned toward me and whispered in my ear,

"Just follow my lead. You need to speak your heart language on this, which is not always a language you actually know." I frowned at him, but nodded my understanding.

He nodded to Gabriel, who intoned something in enochian. Balthazar's eyes flashed dark, like they had last night when I first started playing with his wings, then started glowing and he intoned something in a dark, deep tone and a language that was definitely not enochian, yet somehow I understood it.

 _Through time and space and in between_

 _the veil and curtain drawn,_

 _I swear to follow you, my dove_

 _Until the sun is gone._

I grinned, not quite understanding why. He smiled warmly back at me, before Gabe turned to me and gave the same inflection as before, in enochian. Smirking at the thought that I will _never_ have any clue what he was saying, I turned to Balthazar. Suddenly, I felt something well up from within me; bubbling up from the place from whence normally my stories come. I opened my mouth to release an inane babble that sounded nothing like what came from my head, but I knew from the look on Balthazar's face when I was done that he understood what I had said.

 _From dusk till dawn_

 _I'll carry on,_

 _And keep this new love true,_

 _Till all shall sleep_

 _Then still I'll keep_

 _This vow I make to you._

Balthazar grinned and pulled me to him, wrapping his arms and wings around me as he kissed me senseless. I gasped as I felt something like my entire being getting ripped apart and carefully pieced back together. I felt something distinctly Balthazar wrap around me and enter into me, a magnet pulling all my loose parts back into my being, not leaving a single one behind. I cried out when I felt something painful and itchy and explosive burst from my back, and heard gasps from everyone around me. I grinned and flexed my wings, before bringing them in front of me. I gasped myself. There were no feathers on my wings. They were a leathery feeling, iridescent emerald green, the color of Dean's eyes. I stared at my wings, my eyes widening as I watched the claws on the end flex. All in all, my wings were very much like a bat's.

"Balthy..." I whispered, confused. He put his hand to my cheek and I closed my eyes, afraid of what happened. "Did something go wrong?" I turned to the other angels who all shook their heads.

"Do brand new wings normally look like that?" Dean's voice rang out, before the others all shook their heads. Balthazar was staring at me.

My stomach growled and I rolled my eyes. "Well, I'm starving, so it must have worked at least a little."

Balthazar frowned. "Wait... I remember something. Something I had forgotten about your universe; the one you were born in."

"What?" I asked, frowning at him.

"The angels all had wings like yours; bat wings. Featherless. I still had my normal wings while I was there; something about being from a different universe. Dad explained it to me while I was there."

Cas looked at Balthazar. "Do you think that is what the book meant?"

He shrugged. "It must be."

"What do you mean?" I asked. "What did the book say?"

Gabriel sighed. "When we were reading through the spell, the book had a little foot note that said that the wings would be based on where the person came from. We just assumed it would be something like you would have a peregrine falcon's wings or something, rather than a toucan, because you're from the great northwest as opposed to South America, but it seems it has more to do with the universe than the place. Instead of bird wings, you have bat wings, like a dragon would."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Well, let's test it, shall we?" He closed his eyes and I heard his voice thunder through my head. _Hey, Kara, little sister, are you really okay? How are you feeling? The angels seem to be a little busy worrying about your wings to ask about your feelings or your appetite._

I smiled warmly at him, all the affection I had for him coming out in force. "I'm fine, Dean. And I heard that."

Balthazar smiled. "So, you're hearing prayers. Next test." _Are you ready for the torture I promised tonight?_

I grinned leeringly at him. _Are you sure it's the same principles with dragon wings?_

He smirked. "Well, it works." He said to the others before replying to me. _Please darling; one thing about the angels who were mating while I was stuck in your world; they were_ anything _but subtle. I know a lot more than I had expected to ever need._ I shuddered in anticipation before turning to the others.

"Are we done yet?"

Cas smiled and Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Yes, we're done. Go play angels and dragons, or whatever it is you're going to do together."


	6. Chapter 6

_"_ _Are we done yet?"_

 _Cas smiled and Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Yes, we're done. Go play angels and dragons, or whatever it is you're going to do together."_

When I woke up that morning, I wasn't sore, however I was _extremely_ uncomfortable. My wings were sticky, my crotch was sticky, and the wings wrapped around me smelled so much like Balthazar that I was half afraid I would jump him again, right then and there, just on principle. As soon as that thought crossed my mind, I felt a chuckle rumble in his chest.

"Stop it." Balthazar murmured, the rumble on my cheek when he sighed making me smile. "I'm trying to sleep." His arms tightened around me and I chuckled softly.

"Good morning to you too, sleepy head." I murmured, pressing a gentle kiss to the mark on his shoulder where I bit him. He hummed, stroking a feather down my wing gently. I rolled away to get up and he pulled me closer.

 _Stay_. He whispered in my head as his hands smoothed gently down my back. I sighed and snuggled back into him, willing away the sticky gross that I felt. I wasn't going to be allowed to shower, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to be clean. He chuckled dimly. _Maybe I like you dirty_. I turned to him and stuck my tongue out at him, earning another chuckle.

 _Well that's just too bad!_ I said, scrunching my nose at him. _I happen to_ like _being clean!_ He laughed, the rumble in his chest pulling a smile from me as I felt him vibrate my cheek again. I turned my head, nipping gently at the exposed skin there.

 _Stop. I don't want to get out of bed yet, but I'm not ready to dirty the sheets again._ I just grinned at him, licking over the spot where I had bit him. He glared lightly at me before rolling his eyes. "Fine." He said. "We'll get out of bed. Are you happy now?"

I grinned and turned. When he withdrew his wings from around me, I hopped up, heading straight for the bathroom. After everything last night, even if I _was_ clean, I wanted a hot shower. _Just because I'm an angel and have grace, doesn't mean I can't enjoy a hot shower!_ I thought.

I heard a chuckle from the other room. _Did you hear anything to the contrary from me? I love hot showers as much as the next angel._

I smiled. _Wasn't really aimed at you, but I get it. It's nice to be able to relax my muscles the old fashioned way._ I turned on the water, letting it warm up and getting it to the right temperature before getting in. I winced when it hit my wings. It was _hot_ on my wings! Suddenly, Balthazar was right outside the shower stall.

"Kara?" He called. "Are you alright? You just randomly sent over a wave of pain."

I sighed. "How do I get rid of my wings? They are _really_ sensitive to different temperatures."

He nodded. "Same way you got rid of your clothes last night, you rascally cretin." I laughed and did as he said, closing my eyes and reaching for my grace. It took a little more coaxing than the night before, I suppose because no one was messing with my wings, but I was able to tap into my grace. I imagined my wings being gone, and just like that, they were. I smiled at him and sent over my thanks before ducking back under the spray.

 _Will I still be able to fly with them put away?_

 _Of course,_ he replied, _They are still there, they just aren't physically in this realm at the moment, which is probably best, seeing as Sam is still, as far as we know, unclaimed. Cassie said he and Dean would mate last night, but I didn't discuss it with Gabriel. That incredible scent of yours might just drive him into an embarrassing frenzy._ I flushed a little and felt his amusement in response to my embarrassment. I just shook my head and turned my attention back to my shower, moaning in delight as the hot water pounded over my exhausted shoulders. I felt my wings twitch as the muscles in my shoulders relaxed. When I was completely relaxed, I got out, drying myself slowly and gently with a towel before summoning a pair of yoga pants and a loose t shirt to wear, as well as the appropriate underwear for the outfit. When I was dressed (the human way), I opened the door; a small, contented smile on my face as I stepped out of the bathroom. I looked up to see Balthazar staring at me, eyes narrowed and- _are you pouting?_ I asked, grinning at him.

He huffed. "No more hot showers for you. I never thought I would get jealous of _water_." He frowned, his pout deepening. "Next time you're stiff, _I_ fix it." I almost laughed at him, before I noticed just how tense he really was.

"I think _you_ need a hot shower, Balthy." I said, grinning at him and gesturing toward the bathroom. "Go on, I'll wait for you."

He sighed, and the next thing I knew, he was completely relaxed. "I'm fine."

I rolled my eyes. "Wow, take the easy way out." He rolled his eyes right back at me and I chuckled, waltzing up to him to plant a peck on his soft lips. "Well, we both seem plenty recovered, and our wings aren't going to cause danger to anyone back at the bunker. Does that mean we're ready to go?"

He laughed. "I believe you're missing something, my dear." He stepped back and winked at me before turning his back. I stared at his _still_ bare body and my eyes widened.

"Oh yeah, that might be awkward. Why don't you just dress casual today?"

He laughed. "My dear, I will dress however I like." However he liked though, turned out to be a pair of gently fitted, slightly worn blue jeans and a red and blue flannel with a crimson t shirt underneath. I chuckled and shook my head at him, linking my hand in his and taking off with him in tow, back to the boys in the bunker. I decided on the way there that we should have waffles, and so when we got there, I brought a waffle iron into existence with the snap of my fingers. Balthazar pouted at me slightly at that, but when I spun around, the ingredients for the waffles, as well as an americano for me from my favorite coffee shop, was waiting. I just chuckled at his antics and started the coffee maker on the counter in anticipation of the moose's need to wake up, and possibly Dean's, as well. I ensured with a snap of my fingers that there would be cream and sugar if either brother needed it.

As Balthazar and I set to work making breakfast, I hummed Karaoke Superstars by Superchic(k), a song I hadn't thought of in a long time. It was a song I'd been obsessed with when I was younger. Apparently my mood was contagious, because soon Balthazar was singing softly beside me.

When I turned to look at him, wondering how he knew the song, he grinned and winked. _Did you know that when you hum a song, the lyrics, as well as a memory of how the song sounds from a stereo, runs through your mind?_ I nodded my understanding. That made sense then; he was mooching off my knowledge of the lyrics. "So..." Balthazar began, turning to me with a small grin. "Are you a karaoke superstar?"

I laughed. "Boy, you get me in a car with some music on that I know, and I am _the definition_ of a karaoke superstar!"

He chuckled heartily beside me as he poured batter into the waffle iron for the first waffle. I sprinkled some chocolate chips in as well, reminding Balthazar silently that he had an obnoxious five year old for an angelic older brother when he sent me curiosity over our bond. He just laughed and nodded, acquiescing to my knowledge of how to please five year olds, and really obnoxious archangels with an insane sweet tooth. As soon as the first waffle was done and on a plate, the topic of our previous conversation himself came sprinting into the kitchen.

"Do I smell waffles?!" He shouted ecstatically and Balthazar and I laughed. I shook my head at him, grinning when he went for the first waffle.

Balthazar smacked his hand and Gabriel pouted at my mate. I smiled and said, "Gabe, if you don't wait for the others, you can't eat with Sammy. I know you want to."

He stared at me, extremely confused. "What? How?"

"Oh please," I scoffed, "it's written all over your grace." Balthazar and Gabriel both stared at me.

" _Please_ tell me you see it too!" I said, looking to Balthazar, only to be stared at in return.

"What do you see?" Balthazar asked, curiosity overcoming his astonishment.

"It's... He's like... It looks like he's blushing, but it's all over his body and his wings. You have it too, but I can see a pencil on your left wing, like it was stenciled there in shimmering ink. And with Gabriel, I can see a moose on his wing although it's really more of a peanut with antlers; a kind of stencil, I suppose." They both stared at me.

"Do you see anything on your own?" Balthazar asked. I cocked my head. I had never considered checking! What an idea! I turned, bringing my wing into view, staring at the tip. I couldn't see anything.

"Balthy, I need a flashlight." He smiled, ducking under my wing with a small electric candle, which gave me just enough light to see it. I snorted, laughing as I tucked my wing back into my body.

"What's so funny?" Balthy asked, slightly insulted and leaking insecurity through our bond.

"Sorry, sorry." I said, shaking my head. "It's an anatomically correct heart." When Gabriel and Balthazar both looked at each other, then back at me, I coughed. "It's because I gave Balthy my heart. It's anatomically correct because he has my body as well. It also had wings and a halo; presumably because he's an angel." Balthazar raised his brows at me, as Gabriel rolled his eyes. I stuck my tongue out at him and turned back to the waffle in the iron, removing it and adding more batter.

"Gabe, would you start the bacon? I want the boys to wake up soon."

Gabe nodded, pulling out a pan and turning on a burner on the stove. He pulled a packet of bacon out of thin air and I turned to him.

"Dude, there's an open one in the fridge. You boys need to check for an open one before you open one. Have you never worked food service?" Gabriel smirked at me and I realized who I was talking to. I rolled my eyes. "I refuse to apologize for forgetting you boys have never had to work a human job in your millennia long lives." Balthazar shook his head, chuckling, and gathered the toppings for the waffles. As soon as he was gone, Gabriel turned like he was going to say something, and his eyes landed on the coffee station I set up.

"SUGAR!" He cried, his eyes lighting up like a little boy on Christmas.

"Hey!" I cried, smacking him with the claws on the tip of my wing. "Don't touch! That's for the boys if they take sugar in their coffee, or for baking if I decide I want to bake! It's not for you to eat!"

Gabe frowned, rubbing his shoulder where I had cuffed him. "I don't think I like you with two extra limbs." He pouted.

I grinned. "That's too bad, bucko. You're going to have to live with it. Hey, by the way, have you mated with Sam yet?"

He frowned. "Why? Are you that impatient to get the boys both on the angelic plane like you are?"

I shrugged. "Well, I have a feeling curiosity is going to get to them, and besides, I'll have to have my wings out on this plane if they're going to teach me to fight with them to help balance me. Balthazar wasn't exactly ignoring them last night."

"Well, it's a good thing I caught myself a moose in the backside last night." I grimaced.

"Okay, I wanted confirmation, not details, Gabe!" He just laughed and went back to cooking bacon. I turned back to my waffle iron and pulled out the waffle that was in there before putting more batter on. We had six waffles now and we were running out of batter. I was just debating on making more when I heard Gabe behind me.

"Cassie!" I whipped around and Castiel was standing there, smiling at me. I grinned. "Good morning, Cas. How was it last night with Dean?"

"It went well." He said, burning bright red. "We enjoyed ourselves."

"And are you mated?" I asked, not beating around the bush.

He flushed deeper and nodded and I grinned. "Good."

Suddenly Balthazar was right there. "So what is the symbol on Cassie's wing?"

I shrugged. "What am I; psychic? They're folded against himself. Unlike you two peacocks, Cassie actually puts his feathers away every once in a while."

Balthazar grinned and wrapped his arms around my waist, his wingtips ghosting my hips. "You love it."

I smiled and pecked his cheek before he turned to his brother. "Castiel, would you be willing to show off your beautiful wings for a moment? There's something we want to check." Cas cocked his head in curiosity, but nodded and unfolded his wings. I gaped in astonishment. Balthazar _is_ my mate, but Cas' wings are _beautiful._ I looked to the corner of his left wing and nearly died laughing.

They all stared at me as I just shook my head. "What is Dean's mark, Kara?" Balthazar asked curiously. I just shook my head. "Is it a squirrel?"

I smirked. "No, it's not a squirrel, surprisingly enough. I was actually almost expecting it to be. It's a pistol" I squinted at Cassie's wing, moving a little closer. "Or _maybe_ a sawed off shotgun, crossed with a rose."

Balthazar's eyebrows furrowed as he looked at me. "Why a gun and a rose?" I just shrugged.

"Well, he likes 80s rock, and what always comes to my mind for that genre is guns and roses, so I guess that translated over to be his mark for me."

"What do you mean 'for you'?" He asked, raising his eyebrow.

I shrugged. "I just get the feeling that other people, if they could see grace, would see a different mark, something that represents Dean in their mind."

"What is going on, brothers?" Cas asked, staring at me in confusion.

Balthazar turned to him. "Apparently, Kara can see our grace."

"What do you mean, our grace?"

"There is a slight pink glow to each of you, and a small mark on the tip of your left wing. There is one on mine as well. Gabe's is a cartoony stencil of a moose head, Balthy's is a stencil of a pencil, and mine is an anatomically correct heart with wings and a halo. It represents who you are mated with, so that I can tell." I grinned at them. "We should cast the spell again today, since the boys are both mated now. I wanna see what marks you guys leave on your mates' wings." I grinned at Cas and Gabe. Gabe grinned back and Cas stared at me, awestruck.

"How do you see that?" He asked in awe. I smirked and rolled my eyes.

"Cas, you're crazy. Why does it matter?" I said.

"I've never heard of that before!"

"Cassie," Balthazar butted in, "have you ever heard of an angel with bat wings? She's from a different universe. Things are probably different over there."

I smiled and nudged him a little bit. "Hey, be gentle, Balthy. He's younger than you." Balthazar rolled his eyes, but tightened his arms around me.

I sighed. "Where are those boys? Did you two _really_ wear them out that much last night?"

Gabe smirked and Cas flushed again. "Well if I wore Sammy out, he didn't show it. He's in the library."

I rolled my eyes. "Seriously? How is he not in here begging for food? You're doing something wrong, Gabe, if he wasn't worn out enough to be _starving_ the next morning."

Gabe just rolled his eyes. "Oh! By the way, little sister, I have that dare you laid on me! Bury you in something _better_ than Kit Kats once you turned? Well here we go!" He snapped, grinning, and I felt 80% cacao dark chocolate bars rain down from above and bury me up to my calves. I glared lightly at him, thankful I was only buried part way. He grinned at me and I laughed, turning to kiss Balthy as I used some of my grace to file those in the cupboards for later.

As soon as the chocolate bars were gone, I remembered my americano, turning back to the now slightly cool drink and taking a sip. I smiled and hummed, reveling in the taste of the coffee on my tongue. Balthazar grinned and kissed me, licking at my lips like he wanted some of the coffee himself. I broke away and held the cup up to his face. _If you want coffee, you can get it from the cup, not my mouth!_

He smirked. _Now where's the fun in that? I thought the goal was to make my brothers uncomfortable._ I rolled my eyes as he snorted in laughter.

I heard a throat clear and turned away from Balthazar, americano still in hand. "Is that breakfast? I'm starving!" Dean, who had appeared in the doorway, looked positively wrecked, like he'd spent all night well... screwing an angel, honestly. That's what he looked like. Which makes sense, since he did.

I grinned. "See, Gabriel? _Cas_ did his job properly! What have you to say for yourself?"

The archangel in question just laughed and rolled his eyes. I turned to Dean.

"There's some coffee in the pot if you want it. I didn't know how you guys take your coffee, so I just left the stuff out for you."

Dean grunted. "What I need is a stiff drink. What about you? How are you feeling?" He turned to me, and I smiled.

"I'm okay. It was a little overwhelming" I felt a shot of guilt through the bond and glared at Balthazar, "but overall it was great."

Dean, who didn't miss my glare, fastened one of his own on Balthazar in suspicion. "What happened? Did he hurt you?"

I chuckled. "Dean, I'm fine. I'm an angel now; I can sort of handle things. That's not the issue. He won't stop beating himself up for something he _already_ apologized for."

This time, Cas narrowed his eyes. "What did you do, brother?"

Balthazar sighed and I felt more guilt, which just served to make me mad. "For the last time, can we drop it? It was _not_ a big deal!"

Balthazar turned to me. "No, Kara, you were _in tears_. Do you have any idea how badly that hurt me?"

I glared at him as I watched Dean and Cas both tense at the mention of my tears. "Dean," I remarked, not moving my glare from Balthazar, who should _not_ have brought this up. "You grip that coffee mug any harder, you're going to be covered in your own drink."

Balthazar sent me some exasperation before turning to Cas. "I overwhelmed her." As soon as he said that, Cas immediately relaxed.

"You said she was in tears..?" Cas said tentatively, moving to put a calming hand on Dean, who had put down his mug and was doing his best not to rush Balthazar.

I rolled my eyes. "Three times in ten seconds Cas. You would be crying too with that much stimulation."

His eyebrows shot to his hairline. "Sorry I missed something." Dean broke in. "What happened three times in ten seconds?"

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "Dean, she had brand new _sensitive_ wings. What do you think we're referring to?" Dean's eyes widened and Cas chuckled a bit.

"Holy- How the hell does that even happen?" Dean cried, eyes wide with wonder. I rolled my eyes.

"My wings are _brand new,_ Dean. _Sensitive_."

"I also was not paying enough attention to her." Balthazar said and I glared at him again.

"Well you stop beating yourself up for ten seconds, Balthy?" He shook his head and I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose.

"Kara," Cas said, turning to me. "Let me talk it out with Balthazar. I understand more of what happened than you realize. Just let me speak with him." He smiled. "Why don't you go find Sam? I'm sure Gabriel would like to hear this too."

I shook my head. "Fine, but he's only saying this once." I prayed to Gabe. _Get your butt in the kitchen. Balthazar is rehashing how he overwhelmed me last night, and I don't want him having to do so twice. It's not fair to him._

Gabe showed up. "I'm here, shortstop. Happy now?"

I grimaced at him. "I suppose I have to be. Where is the moose?"

Gabe smirked. "Still in the library, antlers deep in research on angels."

I smirked. "Of course he is." I turned to Dean. "Walk with me?" He smiled, grabbing his coffee cup before pouring coffee for Sam as well, then followed me out of the kitchen after I grabbed my coffee.

When we were in the dining room, passing toward the library, he said, "So can Sam and I see your wings again? We only got, like, a five minute glimpse of them."

"Sure, I wouldn't mind. You guys have both mated, so my oils shouldn't effect you." He grinned as we went into the library.

"How's research, Sammy?" Dean called, startling the big guy from his book. He rolled his eyes at his older brother. "Slow." He answered, gratefully accepting the coffee Dean held out to him. He sighed and rubbed his eyes before going back to research.

"Holy shit..." I whispered. "You- Did you actually _sleep_ last night, Sam?"

He smirked. "Uh... Yeah. Didn't you?

I laughed. "Well, maybe Balthy knocked me out a couple times."

Sam's eyes shot to the size of saucers. "Holy shit, are you okay? What did he do to you?"

Dean growled a little. "I'd like to know, too."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. "Dean, would you relax? It's not like that."

"He said you were in _tears_ , Kara, _tears!_ He made you cry!" I sighed, rolling my eyes as Sam shot out of his seat.

" _What?_ Did he hurt you? Are you alright? Kara, look at me."

I huffed. "God dammit, guys! Have you stopped to consider for even just a _second_ that I might actually be okay with it?"

"How could you be okay with that?" Sam yelled.

" _It was the best thing I've ever felt in my life before! Why do none of you get that?_ " I shouted, both at the boys, and over the bond. I immediately regretted it when the empathic version of a bitch face came back from my mate; annoyance and frustration, as well as more than a little pain.

I shook my head and glared at the boys, who were staring at me after my outburst. _I'm sorry Balthy. I'm just struggling to see how three of the best orgasms I've ever had could be a bad thing._ I felt warmth come across the bond before he responded.

 _Darling, that's why Cassie and Gabe need to know exactly how you were behaving and how I was treating you. I was basically assaulting your grace. We need to figure out exactly how much damage I did, and if your grace has actually been strengthened, or if I went too fast and weakened it._

I sent a smug feeling over to him. _Well why don't you and I go somewhere and find out?_ I felt amusement and love wash over me and knew he was chuckling at me. I smiled before I noticed a set of fingers snapping in my face.

"Hello? Earth to Kara, come in Kara."

I shook myself. "Kara here; sorry about that Earth, I was on a different line." I grinned at Dean who chuckled and shook his head. Sam huffed a little and looked at me.

"You never actually answered my question, you know."

I sighed and rubbed my forehead, knowing I needed to control my temper better than I was. "Look, guys... Sam, I came like, three times in ten seconds, okay. It was just overwhelming." I smirked a little before looking at him with a grin on my face. "You'd cry too if it happened to you." Sam nodded thoughtfully and I sighed like the martyr I knew I was.

 _Oh come on, you don't even like that song. How can you expect them to know it?_

 _Shut up_. I shot back at my mate, full of petulance. I just felt a few more waves of amusement sweep over me.

Dean just glared at me. When I looked at him. He prayed, _I hate that song. So much so, I'm not even going to give Sammy a hint that it's actually a song._ I grinned, then pranced up to Dean and whispered in his ear,

"If it makes you feel any better, so do I; but I still had to make the joke." He rolled his eyes. When I leaned back down, Sam raised an eyebrow.

"Keeping secrets from me now, eh?"

I just smirked at him. "Look, guys, my wings are sensitive, okay? Balthy is my mate. That makes them react... well, let's just say erratically, if you get my drift."

They both raised an eyebrow at me, but nodded. I knew they _both_ knew what I meant, since they were both mated to angels now. "It was just over stimulation," I said, "I promise."

 _They can both see my wings without going into a frenzy, right?_ I asked Balthazar. When I got an affirmative from my mate, I grinned at the boys.

"Do you wanna see them?" I asked. They're eyes widened.

"Can we without going into a frenzy?" Dean asked.

I grinned and nodded. "You both have your own mates now, it won't effect you."

Both boys grinned and nodded back to me. I smiled, bringing my wings to this plane with a quick thought to my grace. When I knew they were there, I stretched them out slowly, reveling in the chance to stretch them. I brushed a bookshelf halfway to fully out and I pouted. "Can we go outside?"

Dean shrugged and looked to Sam, who shrugged and nodded. I grinned, and turned around, tucking my wings to my back before I could swipe anything to the ground. Followed by the brothers, we headed outside. Once outside, I stretched them to their full extent and sighed happily as my slightly cramped wings got some much needed air. The boys full on stared. Like, open mouthed, I-don't-know-my-own-name-anymore stared. I grinned, quite enjoying the attention, as I fluttered them back and forth.

Dean was the first to break out of the trance, grinning at me. "Dude, you're on my team if we ever go LARPing!" I couldn't help it, I started laughing until my breath came in gasps, tearing up and doubling over as I laughed and laughed at him, at the joy of being able to be proud of my wings, at the fact that neither of them was judging me for not having a bird's wings like the others.

Irritation rumbled over our connection. _If you have one more insecurity attack, I swear to my father that I will take you straight to our forest and you will_ not _leave until you know exactly how beautiful you are and you will never doubt yourself again!_

I smiled, knowing the boys had no idea why I was doing so, and responded with _I love you too, Balthy._

By the time he said that, Sam had recovered and said to me, "Could I touch them? Are they leathery like a bats?" I shrugged, realizing I hadn't touched them myself yet.

"Let me ask the others. I don't want some weird angel mojo thing to mess up any of our bonds with our angels." At a nod from the boys, I sent a prayer to Cas and Gabe with the question, then shot the question straight to Balthazar.

 _It should be alright._ He said, _they have both mated, and so have you._

 _When you touched me, I dissolved into a pile of sexualized nothing. What about when they do so?_

 _Cassie says that you should actually be asking them both to. He's right. An important part of a fledgeling angel's life is to solidify family bonds. Have you any reason to not wish those two to be family?_

When I sent over my negative, love came flowing through my bond and I nodded, smiling. "Okay, this is going to sound weird, but would you both? Please?" Both brothers nodded, but Dean also added,

"Mind if I ask why?" I nodded, and explained to him the whole idea of forging strong family bonds. I commented that Cas and Gabe would probably also need to groom my wings when we got done with breakfast, and they both nodded.

"But," Sam said, confusion written on his face, "I thought that it would turn you on. Are we going to have to deal with that?" I shook my head.

"The angels say you boys will just imprint on me, like a baby duck, and my grace will have you guys impressed on it, and I won't ever be able to lose you. You'll have a permanent stamp on me." I grinned at them and they both smiled back. I sat down, opening my wings and beckoning them over. They both came over and put hands on my wings. I gasped at the warm feeling and my claws clutched at both of them, one on each brother's shoulder, when they both pulled away, looking at me carefully.

"Please don't pull away." I whispered, afraid they would leave now that we finally started bonding as friends. "Don't leave me."

Dean's face went slack and his eyes widened. "Kara, we aren't going to leave you." He said. Sam just shook his head and reached out to my wing again. I hummed when he stroked my wing, feeling a rumbling in my chest as I leaned into him. When Dean did the same on the other side, I wanted nothing more than to lay down and curl up with both of them doing this indefinitely.

"Wait, are you- are you purring?" Dean asked, amusement dancing a jig in his voice. I shrugged and my wings shuddered a bit.

"I guess I am." I said, humming more as he chuckled, but kept stroking my wings. I had released both their shoulders and had stretched out as much as I could, giving them both as much access as I could. I couldn't stop purring, they just kept me going with every gentle stroke. I was so distracted, I didn't even notice the others had joined us until both hands left my wings. I whimpered and pouted, reaching, stretching for the sensation of love and warmth I had felt before, until I felt a different set of hands. These were old hands, practiced hands. Castiel had sat beside Dean and Gabriel had done the same to Sam. I felt denim on my face and new Balthazar had my head in his lap. I knew I should feel embarrassed about the amount of attention everyone was paying me, but those hands were so practiced, and so gentle and loving; Cas on my left, murmuring in enochian, and Gabriel on my right, talking quietly in english as he explained to Sam and Dean how to make the most of this time. Balthazar spent his time smoothing down my hair, bond wide open as he voiced my feelings to the others. Dean was grinning at me as I continued purring, fully content and happy to stay where I was forever.

 _Sorry darling, but you still need some food, and so do the boys._ Balthazar said over our bond, grinning before he turned to the others. "She's starting to settle down." He said. The next thing I knew, the hands were gone. I whimpered, reaching for them, not wanting to lose them yet. I felt lips connect with the base of my wings and I shuddered, suddenly fully alive again.

"Whoa, what was that?" I asked, taking deep breaths as I struggled to gain some sort of memory of what had just transpired. All I was getting was that I absolutely loved the men gathered around me.

"That, darling, is called grooming. Don't worry, we will be doing something similar when Dean and Sam get their wings." He turned to the older angels. "We are going to need to schedule an hour a day each for them, I think." The other two nodded, and Gabriel spoke up.

"But, we'll have to break them up, maybe ten minutes at a time. Kara settled down fairly quickly."

Balthazar grinned. "Well, she _was_ exhausted."

Gabe smirked. "Can't say I blame her."

I looked up. The others were all already standing, but Balthazar still sat, stroking my hair, letting me stand in my own time. I sighed and sat up, wobbling a little. As soon as I was out of his lap, Balthazar hopped up, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet and into his arms. When he let go, I was swept into a warm embrace by none other than Dean Winchester himself.

I just smiled, hugging him right back and wrapping my wings around him. "Well this is pleasant. Something I said?" He pulled away and I withdrew all four of the limbs I had wrapped around him.

He shrugged, suddenly looking shy, and said, "It's just something that Balthazar relayed to us. You're my baby sister now, Kara, and I want you to know that nothing will change that. The three of us being mated to who we are mated to kind of means we're stuck with each other, and I don't ever want you to think I'd have it any other way. You're a beautiful girl." I flushed and turned to Balthazar, absolutely confused by this outburst.

He just grinned. _Even in a grooming session, you have your idiotic moments my dear, and your insecure moments._ I flushed and sighed.

"It's okay, Dean, I'm just not very good at the whole 'loving yourself' thing. I was bullied in the smallest ways through school, but it adds up to the biggest insecurities, because it's so subtle that you almost don't notice it at first."

He shook his head, clenching his fists and looking away from me. "Those punks are lucky I didn't know you yet." I just grinned and wrapped my arms around his neck.

"Thank you." I whispered in his ear. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me, lifting me on the spot before putting me back down and moving to Cas' side.

He took his angel's hand and said, "now come on, I'm hungry, and a little birdie told me there were waffles and bacon inside." I grinned and we all walked inside to eat breakfast. I was astonished how quickly I was becoming accustomed to these men, but they were, after all, my mate and brothers now.


	7. Chapter 7

During and after breakfast, we discussed how we would go about turning Dean and Sam into angels. We discussed doing both at the same time, but considering it was pretty much a wedding type ritual, we decided that we could do them on the same day, but not at the same time. We agreed that it could wait a few days. Ironically enough, I was the one who was most impatient for them to become angels; I guess curiosity will do that to you; I wanted to see the symbols on their grace when it happened.

We went down to the gym and the boys started training me in hand to hand. It was alright; I'm not really a big close up person; in my opinion, the mark of a great archer is never letting someone get so close to you that you have to engage them in melee, but unfortunately, neither the Winchesters nor the angels were standing for that. Balthazar had almost taken my side, but then Gabe had reminded him of Gaul in 660, and Balthazar had blanched and acquiesced, backing down and shooting me an apologetic glance as I sighed and returned to getting beaten by the Winchesters.

By lunchtime, I was grouchy; not so much because I was sore; the only part of me that was having issues was my wings, which were stiff from the battle stance Balthazar had me hold whenever I was fighting the boys; something about not letting them get near my wings. I had suggested just getting rid of them, and Cas had focused his intense gaze on me and questioned me about what would happen if I was low on grace in the middle of a battle and couldn't get my wings put away properly. I had wanted to roll my eyes, but knowing about his intimate acquaintance with losing one's grace, I just sighed and acquiesced, yet again. The reason I was grousing was because the boys seemed to be fully enjoying the fact that they had bested me in melee combat, especially after the gloating I had done in the range the day before. When he caught my thoughts and grumbles, Balthazar had rolled his eyes.

"Oh, will you stop complaining? The boys have been doing this for years. They were raised into this. Just because you're an angel doesn't mean you will automatically be better than them. That's what _practice_ is for."

I pouted and looked away. "I hate practice." I muttered. He chortled and I turned to glare at him, but he just grinned at me.

"God, you are such a fledgeling sometimes." He said, before turning to face me and winking. "Oh wait, you are." He said, laughing out loud when I swatted his butt, trying to not smirk when he just shook his head and kept laughing. When we got to the kitchen, I was blushing all the way to my ears, and Balthazar was grinning at me like he wanted to jump me right then and there. I studiously avoided looking at him, instead staring at Dean, who had this lopsided grin on his face and winked whenever he caught me staring.

"So," I said, clapping my hands and hoping to distract them all from the color of my face. "What do we want to do for lunch?" Sam smiled and shrugged and Gabriel grinned. "Gabe," I said before he could open his mouth, "if you suggest candy, _or Sam_ , I _will_ kick you to the moon and back." His mouth turned down in a small frown as he pouted at me.

"I say we barbecue!" Balthazar exclaimed, grinning at me leeringly. I felt my blush darken a few more shades as the brothers turned confused eyes on me, Gabriel chortled, and Cas rolled his eyes, but said nothing.

Dean cleared his throat, shaking his head in confusion, and said, "I'm for it. Who wants to cook? Kara?"

I shook my head. "I don't do barbecues. Not to be sexist, but that's a man thing in my eyes. If we're going to cook outside, one of you men can do it. I'll stick to cooking in the kitchen where I'm comfortable."

Dean shook his head. "I ain't barbecuing unless I can have a beer in one hand and a spatula in the other."

Balthazar rolled his eyes. "I'm sorry. I wasn't clear. How about this; I say _I_ barbecue! _I_ want to do the barbecuing, seeing as how it was _my_ idea!" Dean threw up his hands in surrender and I chuckled a little at my pouting mate.

"Grill's all yours, Balthy." I whispered, brushing his glands with my savory claw and grinning as I kissed his cheek, not missing the shiver that went through him. We all left the bunker, heading outside to the grassy area where we had sat for my grooming that morning. When we got outside, I took a deep breath and grinned. Fresh air is so refreshing. I was so busy savoring the wind on my face that I didn't see or hear Balthazar snap a barbecue into existence or start it up. I stood there, stalk still, as the wind blew around me until I felt a hand on my shoulder. I turned my head to Cas regarding me with concern radiating from his grace, turning it gray with a slight tinge of blue.

"Kara, are you alright?" He asked. I just turned my head back in front of me, grinning.

"I'm fantastic, Castiel. Do you feel that? The wind on your face, blowing through your hair... I love the feel and smell of a good strong wind like this."

He tilted his head. "Kara, there is no wind blowing right now."

I just shook my head. "Sure there is; I can feel it on my wings, I can feel it on my face."

I felt his hand leave me and went back to basking in the glory of the windstorm that was all around me. I don't know how long I stood there, but it wasn't long enough. I started when I felt a hand on my elbow. I hear Balthazar's voice.

"Darling, I've made you a cheeseburger; avocado and garlic. Just like your savory claw." I smiled, wanting to laugh, wanting to turn and look at my mate but not willing to turn away from the wind. "Kara?" Balthazar asked. I felt worry tinge our bond and I just sent over all my joy.

"It's alright, Balthy." I said, "Just let me cherish this wind storm for a bit longer."

"Sweetheart, if you stay in the wind too long you'll catch cold."

"But Balthy, the wind is soft and kind and gentle. It would never get me sick."

I felt a hand on my arm, but pulled away. Muddled voices echoed around me. I heard someone I recognized, but couldn't place say in a gruff, kind voice. "She is feeling wind. There's not much here but a breeze, Balthazar. She overreacting to stimuli. She needs more grooming time than we've given her." I felt worried, but I wasn't. I wasn't sure why I felt worried. I felt a hand on my elbow, but I fought it, wanting to stay in the powerful, swirling vortex of the wind storm all around me. I felt a few more hands join and then I felt myself laid gently onto soft grass and felt a rough denim press into my face. I felt hands on my wings and nearly fell asleep, the warmth and worry and love was back. I tried to hide from the love, tried to soothe the worry. Why should they worry for me? I am in the vortex of a wind storm. The wind storm loves me. I can feel the love swirling around me. I shut my eyes tighter, trying to block out the voices, but the wind died down and the voices continued. The gruff, familiar voice from before was murmuring enochian. I was able to make out other vague, shadowy voices which were becoming clearer all the time. One stuck out in my mind.

"Do you think she'll be okay?" It was rough, thick with worry. I tried to reassure the voice, not knowing much, but knowing that he didn't deserve the worry he was feeling. I tried to tell him this wasn't his fault. I tried to tell him it would be okay. Suddenly, I heard his laugh and the love from before came roaring back in full force. "She thinks I think it's _my_ fault?" The voice asked, amused. I heard something else then, a rumbling like thunder that grew in intensity until I could feel it in my chest, then I realized that was all. I could feel it in my chest but otherwise it was so quiet I could hardly hear it.

"She's purring again." A soft voice murmured, and suddenly I was overcome with a picture of antlers on either side of a peanut. _Where have I seen that before?_ I wondered, utterly confused, but delighted nonetheless. The peanut had a lopsided grin on it's face, soft loving eyes gazing out at me as it continued murmuring nothing I could hear. "Seriously? What is with Kara and calling me a moose? Where did she even get that?" The peanut said, turning from one side to the other, accompanied by its antlers. I could tell the peanut was trying not to laugh. The rough voice laughed.

"Well, you _are_ freakishly tall, Sammy."

Suddenly, the enochian stopped. I whined, wishing the voice hadn't stopped chanting, wanting to wrap myself back up in that beautiful, calming sound. Suddenly, the voice resounded in english.

"Grooming isn't helping, Balthazar. She's hit a wall. I think it's time you two went ahead alone and you groomed her wings." I felt concern, warring with lust, and wondered why I was so worried, and how I could feel both those seemingly opposite emotions at the same time. Amusement overcame me and I heard a chuckle that sent a shiver through me.

"Alright, alright. I get it." A beautiful, silvery voice washed over me, causing an electric shock to run from the base of my spine up into and through my wings. Suddenly, all the swirling love that was around me, wrapping me up in a hug was gone. "Go eat the burgers I made. I'll make sure my mate is feeling alright." I heard the voices drift away and suddenly I felt myself lifted up. I felt us take flight and felt myself get laid down on a soft bed, like a cloud, when I murmured and turned over, laying myself face down and freeing my wings to stretch towards the tingly voice. He chuckled. "You're really not making this easy, you know." Something bubbled up in my mind as I felt a kiss pressed to the base of my wings.

 _Maybe I don't want to._

I felt a thick chuckle as I rose up, the world around me slowly clearing as I felt myself swim slowly to consciousness.

My eyes widened as I sat up. "Balthy." I breathed. "What the hell?"

He just shook his head. "We worked you too hard while we were training you. Your grace started to fight back. Your entire being was highly sensitized."

I stared at him. "That windstorm..."

"All in your head, love."

"How-?" I tried to shake the cobwebs away from my head. He put his hand to my cheek, stilling me.

"There was a slight breeze outside. Your entire being was overtly sensitive. This was one of the side effects we were afraid of. We had hoped this wouldn't happen. We tried to bring you back from the edge with just grooming; got everyone involved in the hopes of being able to muscle you back to yourself, but you were too far gone. Even the usual grooming stupor you went into was more of a psychedelic acid trip than something that was actually helping to calm you. It was like your grace had had enough and didn't want to be calm anymore. I'm realizing it may have gotten sick of being ignored."

I squinted at him. "Ignored? We've been dealing with my grace _all day_."

"Yes, but Kara, we just spent four hours without touching your wings or dealing with your grace at all. It overreacted, which is my fault, really; after all, I'm the one who overloaded you last night."

I sighed, rubbing my forehead. I really wanted to yell at him, maybe tell him it didn't matter, but I didn't have the energy anymore. I just needed him. At the mention of last night, I felt myself perk up, wanting to be his like I was last night. I looked up to see him smiling warmly at me. He put his hand on my cheek and leaned down, gently brushing my lips with his.

"You know I can't resist you when you need me like this." He murmured with a smile as I grinned and leaned into his hand.


	8. Chapter 8

_I looked up to see him smiling warmly at me. He put his hand on my cheek and leaned down, gently brushing my lips with his._

 _"You know I can't resist you when you need me like this." He murmured with a smile as I grinned and leaned into his hand._

* * *

When we got back to the bunker after our one on one, the barbecue had disappeared and everything outside had been cleaned up. Everyone was in the library, I could tell that much, and so when Balthazar and I walked in, we just meandered slowly to the library. I could feel Dean and Sam's worry, but I didn't really want them to be concerned. I was fine, for now at least. Balthazar's hand tightened around mine and he sent reassurance my way. I smiled and sent love back. I heard him chuckle and, as we walked into the library, clear his throat. When Dean, who had been pacing and complaining about research as usual, heard Balthazar, he turned, and when he saw us, he rushed over to us. Balthazar smiled a little and stepped away, letting Dean put his hands on my shoulders and stare into my eyes. I flushed and coughed a little in an attempt to cover my snicker. Mr. _No chick flick moments_ sure was protective of his new little sister.

"Kara, are you okay?" He asked. I saw a hand on his shoulder and we both turned to Cas, who was looking at me with a small smile.

"She's fine now, Dean." I flushed and looked away as I watched Dean smirk.

"Good." I felt arms wrap around me and turned my gaze back to in front of me. Dean was hugging me, my head pressed into his shoulder. I just grinned and wrapped my arms around his waist, hugging him a little harder than maybe I needed to, but it's not like I hurt him. He pulled away and we grinned at each other before I was attacked by a moose. I just laughed and wrapped my arms around Sam's neck as he picked me up and spun me around.

"I'm so glad you're okay." He mumured in my ear and I just smiled and squeezed him tighter. What else could I do?

"I'm okay." I whispered back in his ear. He put me down and I knew my eyes were shining. I could feel the unshed tears tickling my eyes. Cas just smiled down at me and said, "I'm glad you are feeling better, sister." I smiled back and nodded, swiping at my eyes as I tried to blink away the tears.

Suddenly, I was attacked. Well, pounced on is a better way of putting it. I toppled, trying to shake off my attacker, when I heard laughter all around me. I felt someone pull my attacker off me and heard the moose.

"Come on, Gabe, let her breathe. She can't lift you like I can."

"Sammy! Filter, dude!"

I looked up to Sam half holding Gabe as they both grinned at Dean, who was shaking his head. I laughed a little and said, "It's good to see you too, Gabe."

He grinned at me. "One heart attack a day. That's the rule. You've had yours."

I grinned and shook my head. "I suppose I have now. Is there any food? I'm starving."

Dean grinned and walked to the kitchen, where he produced a burger from the fridge. He put it on a bun and Balthazar snapped to refresh it before adding avocado and garlic and all the fixings, the way he knew I liked it. When he was finished, he turned and handed it to me with a leering grin. We were sharing a wavelength about my claw, and I earned a few stares when I shook my head, snickering as I accepted the delicious burger from my angel. We returned to the library and I sat down to eat, Balthazar sitting in the chair beside me. While I ate, his hand returned to my hip, rubbing gentle circles into the skin there, which he had snuck his hand underneath my shirt to rest on.

The others returned to their research. Dean cleared his throat. "Any cases?" I looked up from my burger, excited to see them face down a monster in real life. Balthazar tapped my hip.

"Finish your burger, darling. You need the energy." I sighed and pouted at him.

"Okay, I'm confused." Sam said, frowning and looking up from his laptop. Everyone turned to him and he said, "Why does she still need food? She's an angel; shouldn't she be good now? I thought you guys didn't need to eat."

"We don't." Cas smiled at me warmly. "But she was turned into an angel magically. It's different. And she hasn't fully matured yet. We don't know how long it would take for her to become a fully fledged angel."

"So how long until I no longer need to eat?" I said, now wondering about that myself, since it had been brought to my attention.

"It's only been a few days, Kara." Gabriel said, rolling his eyes and shrugging. "You've got some time yet."

"What about Sam and me?" Dean asked curiously.

Balthazar sighed. "Look, guys, it isn't like this happens all the time. We don't have any other examples, or at least not that have occurred in the past few millennia. We're just going to have to go with this; roll with the punches. I'll keep toughening up Kara's wings, and Gabe and Cassie can do the same to you when you guys turn."

"So, if she still needs to eat, does that mean she can't heal?" Dean asked.

I smirked. "I don't see why that would be the case. I can snap things into existence. Why shouldn't I be able to heal?"

"Physcially, you can, but if your grace is diminished or hurt in anyway, one of us will have to heal you, and you will also need bed rest. You would need bed rest anyway, if your physical injury were greivous enough. Bedrest and a _lot_ of grooming time, both with us and alone with Balthazar." Cas said, focusing the full intensity of his stare back on me as I felt Balthazar's hand pinch the slowly fading mark from where he bit me that first night. I could feel his smirk radiate off him as I let slip a barely audible gasp. No one else seemed to notice, so I snaked my hand to his shoulder and gave a squeeze to where I had bitten him. I heard a cough and looked to Gabe smirking at me and Dean glaring at me gently.

"Would you guys mind _not_ mentally fucking while we are in the middle of everyday conversation?" Dean asked with a smirk. I flushed.

"He started it." I muttered with a pout.

Balthazar just grinned. "Sorry. I forgot you might still have some _sore spots_." I leveled the best glare in my arsenal on the angel and he just chuckled harder before he grabbed my bitemark again. I leaned away from him and crossed my arms, baring my teeth a little and Balthazar held his hands up in surrender. "It was just a joke, darling, no need to take my head off."

I turned back away from him. "Are you two alright?" Cas said, looking between us.

"C'mon, Cas, we aren't going to start doing couples counseling are we?" Dean asked with a bit of a whine, looking pleadingly at his angel. Cas just smiled at him warmly before turning expectantly to me.

I sighed and pouted. "Balthy's a wretched tease."

Gabe seemed to get my drift. "Seriously, Balthazar? And you called _me_ cruel!"

Balthazar scoffed. "Please. Are you believing any of this? You should have seen how _excited_ she got! She enjoyed it far more thoroughly than she is letting on!"

Gabe chuckled and I glared at him, earning another, smaller chuckle and a surrendering position from the archangel. "Alrighty, Kara's touchy about her pride. Noted."

I huffed out a pout. "Look, guys, are we going on a hunt, or not?" Balthazar lifted my hamburger and pressed it to my lips, shooting me a look when I didn't immediately take a bite from it. I rolled my eyes and took it from him, taking a bite and putting it down to chew while I looked expectantly at Sam.

Sam cleared his throat gently and said, "Uh, yeah, we uh..." He looked at Balthazar as if asking permission and I heard a sigh and felt the shoulder I had leaned back into move up and down behind me as my angel shrugged. Sam continued, warily watching Balthazar for any sign that he thought I wasn't up to this. "We found signs of a vamp nest."

I perked up. _Vampires. This should be interesting._ I thought. "Really? Where is it?"

Sam shook his head. "You're not going to like this, Kara."

I scoffed before taking another bite of my burger. "And why is that?" I asked around a full mouth.

"It's in Washington." He said as I stopped chewing, staring at him. _Why is that a problem? There are plenty of places in Washington I've never been. It's a pretty damn big state, if I do say so myself._ "Stanwood, Washington, Kara." I froze, my jaw still unhinged as I was preparing to continue chewing my big bite of burger. I cleared my throat a little and swallowed as much as I could get down.

"Wait, like _Stanwood_ Stanwood? Hick town, full of bumbling idiots who don't know the first thing of finesse or really _anything_ if it's not farming, acting or singing?"

Gabe snickered. "Don't forget football."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, no one but the freshman team has won any tournaments since I was in elementary school. Probably longer. Football is hardly a trophy sport for our town, no matter how passionate people get. You want to talk sports in my hometown with me, let's discuss basketball. At least we get close to state; or we did every year I was in high school."

Gabriel chuckled. "Go Spartans, right?"

I rolled my eyes again. "Okay; so you're saying there's a freaking _nest_ in my hometown? Where, exactly?"

"I'm not entirely sure. We're looking for something out of the way, somewhere not too many people go."

I nodded. "Well, I can think of a few public places like that, but what if it's just a farmhouse on the side of the road?"

Dean grinned. "Well let's find out. Maybe you can even give us the grand tour of the place."

I smirked and rolled my eyes. "We flying or driving? Because if we're flying, we can come back here every night, but if we drive, we get to spend some quality time in the car, and I can, as Dean says, 'give you guys the grand tour'."

Balthazar grinned. "My vote's on driving." Dean seconded him, but Cas did his little head tilt and spoke up. "How are all of us going to fit into the car?"

Gabriel shrugged. "You and me can follow along, brother."

Balthazar scoffed. "What, and leave me all alone with these humans?"

I grinned at my mate. "Aw, come on, Balthy, I'll be there too, and maybe I'll know some of Dean's songs." I bumped his shoulder playfully and got an appraising look.

"You know, you make a compelling case, Kara."

Dean cleared his throat."So, is that settled then? Gabe and Cas will take angel air and catch up with us every night -and I mean _every_ night, Cas, don't think you can skip out on any-" He cocked an eyebrow at his angel. "And Sam, Balthazar, Kara and me will drive?"

I grinned at him. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Just- no funny business, you two, okay? I don't need to end up needing brain bleach because I glanced in my rearview mirror at an inopportune time."

I rolled my eyes. "Please, like I would _ever_ desecrate Baby like that. The poor dear would be scarred for life."

Dean turned to me, eyebrows raised in an appraising look. "I can't tell if you're making fun of me or not."

I smiled. "Don't worry, I'm not."

Balthazar grinned. _Liar._ I elbowed him in the stomach and he grunted. Dean just nodded, satisfied, and they went back to planning. We all trooped down to the armory and grabbed machetes, but Balthazar pulled me away and handed me an angel blade instead. I raised an eyebrow at him and he smiled, shrugging.

"I know how to make them. Arrows too, with -let's just say they're made of _Unobtainium_ for now- heads." I grinned.

"So these arrows will work like the angel blades?" He nodded, smiling at me. "Shall I make you some?" I bit my lip. Did I really want that much power in my quiver?

 _Darling, it's alright. I trust you won't shoot either Cassie, Gabe, or I with them, and if any of my siblings are bad enough that you have to point that bow of yours at them, well, they clearly had it coming._

I nodded, swallowing nervously. When I grabbed my archery supplies, I used some of my grace to reshape my quiver and add a special compartment, so that it would only open if it came in contact with my grace, and then only that compartment would be open. That way, I never had to worry about pulling the wrong kind of arrow out of my quiver in the middle of a stakeout. Balthazar smiled at me and snapped half a dozen arrows into existence with the special "unobtanium" heads. I put them in the secret compartment and sealed it with my grace, so that I would only pull out the regular arrows that were already in my quiver unless I used my grace. Castiel, who had watched me do so, smiled; his grace gaining a slight teal tint that I knew meant he was proud.

"That's very clever of you, Kara." He said, smiling at me.

I grinned back. "Thanks, Cas." I took the angel sword being proffered me by my mate and looked down at the jeans I had changed into after our private grooming session. "Where the heck do you guys hide these things?"

Cas smiled at me. "I have found Jimmy's trench coat to be a very useful tool for that."

I just snorted, shaking my head. "I am _not_ wearing a trench coat."

Balthazar smiled at me. "Sweetheart, you have hands at the end of your wings. You could hide it in there when we actually start this hunt. After all, only we can see them. Any random vampires wouldn't be able to; not unless you wanted them to. In the meantime, it's short enough to fit in your quiver." I nodded, struck by the brilliance of that idea. I opened the secret pouch in my quiver and added it to the stash of special arrows that was already there before closing my secret pouch again.

When I stood and slung the quiver onto my back, placing my unstrung bow in it, the boys had just finished choosing the guns they were going to take on the hunt and were standing, waiting for me. When I turned and smiled at them, Gabe grinned at me before clapping once and rubbing his hands together. "Alright! Who's ready for a road trip to Kara's hometown?"

I chuckled as the brothers grinned at me, then we all headed out toward Baby.

"We should probably plan out our stops. I don't want to go the whole day without seeing my Sasquatch." Gabe said, grinning at Sam, who smirked back at him. Gabe turned his attention back to us. "And I know baby brother Cassie feels the same way about Deano." Cas tilted his head as though considering, then nodded in agreement with his brother.

I smiled."We can stop every few hours; get out, stretch our legs, use the restroom. It'll make the road trip a little longer, but that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Hopefully those vamps aren't going anywhere."

Gabe grinned at me before turning to wiggle his eyebrows at Sam excitedly. Sam just rolled his eyes and kissed the angel lightly before pulling away from the pouting archangel and getting in shotgun. Dean and Cas took a little longer to break apart, but when they did, Dean got in the driver seat and Balthazar and I slid into the back. As he started the car up and we pulled away, I sighed and leaned into Balthazar, smiling. I could get used to this. Sure flying is faster, but there's something about flying down the highway in a car, surrounded by this new family, that just served to relax me perfectly. His arm immediately wrapped around me and we sat like that for a bit in silence as both the boys stayed in their own heads. When Dean put music on, I couldn't help but grin.

"Oh, dude! Turn it up, Dean!" Sam pouted at me and Dean smirked. "Please?" I added as an afterthought, and he rotated the dial so that Kansas filled the car. Balthazar leaned back, grinning.

"Get ready, Sam." He said, remembering to our discussion about me being a Karaoke Superstar. As the first chords of Dust In The Wind floated by, I started squirming, or rather, dancing, as I call it. I've had some people tell me it's squirming, but I'm swaying with the music.

I danced and sang the entire song and Dean kept grinning at me through the rearview mirror. When the next song was a Journey song that I knew I was even more elated. I freaked out and started bouncing along as Balthazar chuckled and Sam tried to hide his sniggers. Dean grinned and joined me and we rocked the car karaoke like there was no tomorrow.

By the end of the song, Sam was rubbing his face to hid his smirk and Balthazar was outright chuckling. I grinned at him and he kissed my temple.

"Well done, darling, you looked like you were having fun."

I chuckled."That's because I was."

He grinned and turned to Dean. "I'd like to hijack the radio for a moment, if you don't mind, driver. There's a song that I was promised a dance to."

Dean raised an eyebrow at Balthazar, but eventually said, "fine, but don't mess up Baby."

Balthazar smiled and snapped and I heard the opening chords to Karaoke Superstars start playing. I smirked.

 _Are you sure? This may be the only song shouldn't it be something like this?_ Suddenly it changed to the opening line of Shake It Off. Sam rolled his eyes.

"Seriously? Dean actually acquiesces his music to you and you pick _Taylor Swift_?"

I grinned. "Just listen to it, Moose."

He shook his head and turned out the window, only to stare back at me when the opening line was sung because _one_ it wasn't Taylor singing, and _two_ it mentioned something about the Mark of Cain, and then Sam heard his name and then Cas' name. Dean frowned and looked at me, but I was too far gone in the music and Balthazar was too busy laughing at my enthusiasm to explain. Dean and Sam sat there, sharing looks and having silent freak fests while I danced to the song. As soon as I was done, Dean turned off his radio and pulled off into the rest stop that we had just reached. As soon as we were out of the car, he had whirled on me and was pointing.

"Okay, you are going to explain what the _hell_ that just was!" He said, trying to stay calm and pacing. I giggled a little, which only earned me a glower from the Squirrel, before I smiled softly at him.

"Dean, I fibbed a little bit. I'm not from the universe the French Mistake is in. I don't know how Balthy found me unless he was universe hopping," Balthazar shrugged, muttering something about boredom. "But," I continued, "in my universe, not only is Misha still very much alive, but you did your universe hopping stunt _four_ years ago, not just last year. I was in high school when you hopped, according to my universe."

"That doesn't explain that song." Dean grumbled, staring at me.

I smirked. "Please, Deano, you think that you and Sam haven't made any more shitty choices since then? Hell, even Cas has, and probably would have in this universe too, if I hadn't showed up and forced him to be real with you. Dean shook his head and leaned back a little into the angel that had showed up behind him and wrapped his arms around the hunters waist.

"What was all that about the Mark of Cain, though?" Dean asked, frowning at me.

"The Mark of Cain is seriously bad stuff." Gabe said, frowning from where he had appeared behind Sam. "Cain was the father of murder. He killed his own brother. The Mark was a Curse that was placed on him; slowly driving him mad until he became Lucifer's finest; the first knight of hell."

Dean stared at me, seriously freaking out. "Why the _hell_ would I get that? And what the hell was that about a 'Deanmon'?"

"Seriously, Dean? It was just another one of your stupid decisions." I sighed, shaking my head as everyone shared confused looks. I did _not_ want to have to talk about this, even though I knew they needed to know, especially since I had brought up with that stupid song. So much for _that_ joke.

"But why?"

I rolled my eyes. "Cas was gone and you were buddying up with Crowley. He convinced you to get it so that Abaddon wouldn't become queen. After all, an apathetic King of Hell is better than a passionate Queen of Hell who wants no more than to make the human existence into Hell on Earth."

"Dude, Abaddon's dead. Otherwise, Crowley would have never made it to the throne in the first place."

I turned to Gabe. "She better be, or else she's going to experience the full wrath of a pissed off Scribe!" He grinned at me at that.

"Wait, I'm still confused." Balthazar interrupted, turning to me. "The Mark of Cain can whisper all it wants, but the bearer has to actually die in order to become a demon. What happened?"

I huffed. "Metatron happened." I spit the words out with a special sort of venom that had everyone take a half step away from me with raised eyebrows.

"Wait." Gabe said, frowning at me. "Metatron like, the _scribe_ Metatron?" I nodded.

"He tricked Cas, stole his grace and used it to seal heaven." I saw Gabe wince.

"That can't have been pleasant for Cassie."

I smirked. "Believe me, it wasn't. They couldn't find his grace. He had to steal grace from any angels who attacked him just to survive."

Balthazar winced. "That would have just made it worse, though."

I nodded. "Yeah, and he hated himself. Like, hard core. Not to mention all the angels were stuck down here. It was terrible; like worldwide gang wars." Balthazar winced.

"Wait, did Metatron tell me I had to go through three trials in order to restore heaven?" Cas turned to me with a frown on his face. At my nod, fire burned behind his eyes. "Kara, what did he do to Dean?"

I scoffed. "You mean other than the fact that Dean couldn't go two minutes without getting attacked by random angels, and neither could you?" Cas nodded. "After killing Abbadon, Dean went after Metatron, partially because he wanted to end whatever it was Metatron had done and help the Angels go back into freaking heaven where they wouldn't be hurting the humans down here, but the Mark was also effecting him at that point and he was pissed about Cas losing his grace, and I think he thought that Metatron could be intimidated into giving Cas back his grace, as though he had it in his back pocket."

Cas' fists clenched and he glared at the ground.

I sighed. "Look, guys, do you mind? It's not exactly my favorite part of the show. I don't exactly enjoy reliving it. The whole point of bringing Gabe and Balthy was back was so I wouldn't have to. If you really want to know what happened, I'll tell you; with Cas' help, Sam was able to cure Dean, bring him back to his humanity, although as far as I've watched he still has the Mark. I just- I can't do this right now." I could feel moisture gathering behind my eyes and squeezed them shut with a sigh. I stiffened a little bit when I felt arms around my shoulders, but relaxed with a small sigh when I smelled Sam's familiar scent. I bit my lip and hugged him back, trying not to cry on him. I heard someone speak to him, but I was too focused on _don't cry don't cry don't cry_ to catch who it was or what they were saying. Sam let go of me and backed away, then I felt hands on my shoulders. Taking a deep breath, I looked up into the bright blue eyes of Cas staring back at me, his grace tinged pink with love and a little bit of awe.

He smiled at me, putting a hand to my cheek. "Thank you for telling us, little sister. I was in the middle of a meeting with Metatron when you summoned me to the bunker. He has been calling to me for the past few days, wondering why I had taken off and where I was and whether or not I would help him. Thank you for the warning, and for stopping me from doing something I would regret, _again_."

I nodded, sighing, eyes closed, trying to get ahold of myself. I felt a soft kiss to the top of my head, then the hands retreated and I felt familiar arms and wings wrap around me. I shook with sobs and faintly heard _Cowgirls don't cry_ by Brooks  & Dunn. I clung to Balthy, soaking his shirt as he kissed my temple and whispered soothingly to me. I felt fingers smooth gently over my wings, soothing my run away emotions. When I had calmed I nodded, taking a deep breath and backing away as the wings and the arms backed away from me. I sighed, snapping my face back to normal along with the front of Balthy's shirt, which was soaked. He smiled at me, putting a hand to my cheek, before leaning down to kiss me gently. It was soft, and I opened my mouth, tasting burgers and pie and something else distinctly _Balthazar_. When I heard Dean clear his throat, I stepped away, smiling a little and nodding.

"So, we ready to get back on the road?" I smiled at Dean and nodded, not really trusting myself to speak. Gabe and Cas smiled and disappeared when suddenly an idea came to my head.

"Hey guys, I just had an idea. Could you get Gabe and Cas back?" Dean grinned at me and closed his eyes.

"Kara? What's wrong? We've been gone thirty seconds." Gabe said, amusement coloring his voice and his grace slightly, mixed with concern.

"Well, I was thinking, I'm not giving up my backseat buddy, but since you guys are flying anyway, why don't you guys work on heaven while we're driving, in between stops? It might make it a little easier when Balthy and I join you later."

Gabe chuckled. "What do you think we've been doing?"

Cas smiled and nodded at me. "Although, there's a certain scribe we are paying a visit to first." He said, a gleam entering his eye that I recognized from the last time he got properly angry. I smiled a little and looked down, embarrassed.

"Oh. Okay. Just a suggestion. You better get on it, then." They both just grinned at me before taking off again.

I smiled at the others, who smiled back and slid into the car. I sat in the back of Baby, next to my mate, who wrapped an arm around me. I melted into him and he kissed the top of my head. The rest of the drive was fun; Dean turned his music back on, singing unabashedly (and pretty terribly) to every one of his songs. I joined him on the ones I knew, and we drove on, having fun, spending quality time as one big, happy group at every rest stop. It took us four days to drive to Stanwood, but it was probably the best four days of my life.


	9. Chapter 9

I got out of the car, grinning. After four days of driving, staying in overpriced hotels (Balthy and I agreed to stay with Baby so that Gabe and Cas could take their hunters somewhere it was okay to be loud, but Balthy flat out _refused_ to stay somewhere less than three stars, and I can't say I minded all _that_ much), and stopping at every rest stop for an update on how Project Heaven was going and a potty/food break, we were _finally_ here; my hometown.

I was surprisingly excited; after only a week, I was honestly not expecting to miss the old buildings and grassy fields as much as I did. Even the football field, generally unused in the simmer unless the band was marching that year, held some nostalgia so that I was longing to see it again. I felt a hand on my back and looked back to Balthazar, who smiled gently at me. I smiled back and leaned a little bit closer. His hand moved to my side, drawing me a little closer and running gently up and down, my side, making me shiver. About halfway through our road trip, the angels head decided I was sufficiently recovered for Balthazar to start trying to toughen up my wings again. _That_ meant we also needed to start sound proofing our room in each place, or risk getting kicked out. It would seem the ritzier establishments _did_ have a downside beyond the crazy prices.

"We could go see it, you know. Maybe the band is practicing." I shrugged, not sure I wanted to intrude, if they were.

Dean and Sam hopped out of the car and wandered over to stand by us. They couldn't (or wouldn't) wipe the grins off their faces, especially Dean.

"So, how different is it?" Dean asked, grinning at me wide enough to split his face in two.

I shrugged. "It's almost creepy, actually, how similar it is. Shouldn't things be at least a little different?"

Dean shrugged. "How about that grand tour?" He grinned at winked as I snorted, shaking my head.

"Well, I _should_ probably show you the inn, since it's the only place to stay at this exit."

The boys nodded, and we all piled back in the car. I directed Dean through Stanwood and onto Camano, raising my eyebrows in surprise when we reached the bridge.

Sam noticed my expression. "What's up, Kara?"

"They haven't raised the bridge yet." I said, staring at the bridge as we drove over it. Dean cleared his throat, clearly wanting more explanation, so I gave it to him.

"My junior year they started renovating it. It used to flood every year; I've never been hindered from getting to school before, but it came close a couple times."

"Wait," Dean said, "you didn't live in Stanwood?"

I rolled my eyes. "I went to Stanwood Middle School, Dean. I graduated from Stanwood High School. Pardon me for living on an island that you can access through Stanwood and counting that as Stanwood. Very few people I speak to know enough of the area to get past me saying I live in _Seattle_. Stanwood _is_ my hometown, despite my having grown up on Camano."

He shrugged, then grinned. "Let's go see your place."

I smirked and shook my head. "It's really not much."

"Oh, come on! You grew up in that house! That fact alone makes it special!"

I smiled at him and he caught me glancing in his rearview mirror for a split second of eye contact. "You really think so?"

The ear to ear grin that split his face gave me all the answer I needed, but just in case that wasn't enough, he said, "Hell yeah! Are you _kidding_? You lived a normal, stay in one place life! You probably had the same bedroom your entire life!"

I shrugged, turning to look out the window. "Not exactly. I moved in second grade. I mean, close enough; I barely remember anything beyond the names and faces of my first grade friends, and all the accidents I had."

"Accidents? Like what?" Sam asked.

I shrugged. "We lived on the top floor apartment across from the middle school. I fell off the balcony and would have splatted on the concrete had I not fallen into a thorn bush." Sam raised an eyebrow at me when I shook my head, chuckling. "I was so proud of myself. That got me a ride in an ambulance, not to mention all the attention from my dad _and_ my neighbors, all of whom watched me take a nosedive!"

Dean smirked and shook his head at me and I grinned at him. "I bet your dad loved seeing _that_."

I grinned. "One heart attack a day; Gabe and I abide by the same rule. Besides, I got a _teddy bear_ out of it! I mean, how cool do you have to be to wheedle a teddy bear out of an ambulance guy? I was like brilliant when it came to manipulation! The perfect little conman!"

Balthazar's chuckle rumbled my shoulder against his chest ass Sam and Dean both shook their heads, grinning.

"Anyway, have either of you told your angels where to meet us?"

Sam shrugged. "I figured they could just find us, since we don't know how to get to your old house."

"Speak of, turn right up here."

Dean obeyed and started driving up the hill. "Damn, Kara! What's with the hill?" I grinned.

"I loved going down it on the way to school in the mornings, especially in the spring, when the sun was just coming up over the sound and the mountains… It was incredible."

"I wouldn't mind seeing that." Balthazar, who had been pretty much silent as he soaked in the scenery once we got on the island, spoke now; his chest vibrating on my shoulder as I turned to smile at him, shooting a memory his way.

He grinned back. _You're right. That's beautiful_.

I directed Dean the rest of the way to my house, but when we got there, an empty lot greeted us with knee high grass and plenty of weeds. I stared. I couldn't help it. I was so used to the little old mobile home sitting peacefully on the property that to see it run down like this freaked me out.

"This is the place?" Dean asked, parking on the side of the road and stepping out.

"In my universe, it is." I said, following his lead and climbing out of the car. He turned to grin at me. "Well then, I guess we'll just have to visit your universe sometime."

I smiled. "I guess you're right."

He opened the driver door and got back in the car. He started her up again and said, "So, where to?"

I smiled. "Why don't we just drive around? You can't get lost on the island, as long as you're careful to stay on the main roads. It's not that big of an island and there's only one way off."

Dean grinned at me. "I like that plan. Guys?"

"I'm down" Balthazar's smooth voice rumbled beside me. I leaned against him with a smile and placed a hand on his thigh, rubbing lazy circles into the fabric of his jeans.

"Same here." Sam sounded off, shrugging.

"Okay, let's head south and loop around. When we get closer, I'll direct you to the bed and breakfast. I think one of you guys should sleep there and Balthy and I should go back to our tree house tonight. I have a funny feeling about this. If there _is_ a version of me in this universe, she's going to be in high school still, and know almost everybody." Sam nodded.

"Seems reasonable. Gabe and I can do it."

I nodded, then turned to stare out the window. South Camano Drive was just turning into East Camano Drive. "Hey let's take a rest stop at Iverson Beach. It's gorgeous, and I'm sure Gabe and Cas miss us."

Dean brightened at the prospect of his angel. "Just tell me what to do and I'll do it."

I smiled and nodded. As we watched the scenery, I directed Dean to Iverson Beach. As soon as we were out, Cas and Gabe appeared, and Gabe pounced on Sam, kissing him hard. I laughed as Sam pushed him off gently, taking his hand. We walked from the parking lot to the beach, laughing together, almost able to forget that there is a freaking _vampire nest_ in my hometown. It was almost like a vacation, at least until I heard a voice.

"I knew I'd find you here. So, who's the old man, Kara?" I whipped around, accidentally flinging Balthy's hand off my hip with my momentum.

I stared. " _James? James Alexander?_ " _Since when do we talk_? I wondered incredulously. James is the star football player, and when I say star, I mean colleges have been fighting over him since _eighth_ _grade._

He rolled his eyes. "Any other sexy football players whose life you ruined because you didn't have the heart to finish your damn job properly?" I stared at him. Something was off. "Look, I know you said we're over, but I'm warning you anyway, since I'm such a great guy." He flashed me a smile and I saw vampiric confirmation. I saw Dean's fist clench, but Cas grabbed his hand before he could kill our only source of information. James stepped toward me, scenting the air. He frowned at me.

"Are you recruiting _again_? You smell like you did before you turned me." At my shrug, he sighed. "Look, Kara, I don't know who these guys are, but I'm warning you; unless you're trying to bring them to an early thanksgiving, don't go home. Our father wants blood, and for once, he seems okay to settle for yours."

I smirked. "I'm sure I can handle him, Jimmy boy." I did my best to be as flippant as possible, reaching up to pat his cheek with a grin as he sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"You're impossible, you know that?"

I grinned. "Tell daddy dearest I'll meet him by the football field."

"Please, you know he'd never go for that. Would it kill you to show up at the old barn for a proper meeting for once? Making excuses for you is getting old."

I shrugged. "I guess I might. See you tomorrow."

He sighed. "I see your cruelty hasn't abated. What's your excuse for tonight? I'm tapped out of excuses for you."

I shrugged before turning to Balthy with a sly smile. "Tell him I'm grabbing a _small snack_ first." I could feel the possessiveness and predatory feeling rushing off my mate and washing over me in waves.

James sighed. "Whatever. I'll tell Hannah you said 'hi'. See you tomorrow."

I waved after him until he was out of sight. "Oh my god, Kara, you were brilliant!" Sam enthused. "Now we know all we need! Their meeting place, the time; all we need is to clean up this nest and go home!"

I bit my lip. "I don't like what he said about me breaking his heart, though. Back home, I went to the same school as him for seven years and never once held a conversation with him unless forced to, and now we're all buddy-buddy here?"

Dean shrugged. "I guess there are differences between the two universes after all."

"But what did he mean about me not being able to finish the job?"

"What do you mean?" Sam frowned.

"He said, 'whose life you ruined because you couldn't finish the job.' Was I supposed to feed on him instead of turning him? Also, I don't know if I like the idea of me being a vampire in this universe."

"Look, we don't know what you are, Kara." Dean said.

I rolled my eyes. "He said I _turned him_ , Dean. How else could I have done that if I wasn't a vampire?"

Dean shrugged. "Well, are we going to this nest meeting thing, or are we gonna wait it out until we have more answers?"

"Well, I know the old barn, although in my universe it was destroyed a couple years after I graduated high school."

Gabe shrugged. "Well, here you're still in High School, so I suppose it still stands."

I nodded, looking around at the beach we were on.

"Kara?" Cas said, watching me. I sighed.

"Well…" I sighed again. "I don't know. I want to get more information. There's so much we don't know. I'm curious. I want to know where my house went. I want to know where Vamp Kara lives; where her parents are, how and why she knows James so well."

Balthazar nodded. "So… Answers first?" I nodded and he shrugged. Apparently, there was some unspoken agreement to let me lead this hunt; probably because it was my hometown.

 _Sweetie, you immediately took control and told us what to do and where to go the minute we got here._

I shrugged. _Well, I know this town like the back of my hand. After all, I grew up here._

"So," Dean cleared his throat. "Vamp nest tonight, bunker tomorrow?"

I smiled. "Well, I sure hope so. Let's just work on getting this cleared up and we'll see how long it takes."

Gabe smiled at me. "Sounds like a good plan to me."


	10. Chapter 10

I sighed. It was getting into late afternoon and I was getting increasingly nervous. We were all gathered at Baby, and Sam and Dean were gathering weapons from her trunk open trunk, arguing over whether or not having Balthy, Gabe, Cas and I there negated the need for dead man's blood.

I felt a hand on my spine between my shoulder blades and turned to see Cas smiling gently at me.

"What are you thinking?" He asked softly. I shrugged and sighed again.

"I know I said I wanted answers, but I really want to end this vamp nest tonight."

He smiled. "Well, I have an idea as to how we could do both."

I turned to him, but he turned to the group. "New plan; we destroy the nest tonight, but whoever finds Kara, catch her and keep her alive. Maybe one of us could simply fly her to the bunker."

I smiled. "Sounds like a plan to me."

Dean raised an eyebrow. "Sam and I can't fly her anywhere."

Balthazar shrugged. "Call someone. One of us can take her. Actually, call Kara. She's the weakest of us angels." I rolled my eyes, but sighed, knowing he would brook no arguments. "Fine. I guess I get to babysit myself."

Gabe smirked a little and I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Come on," he said, "they're nearly all there. There's a large group, including Kara, on their way there now. I can feel them." Sam shut Baby's trunk with a nod, and I watched as Sam and Dean both dropped into silent crouches, even as we all flew to the barn. As soon as we were there, the boys both swayed a little before regaining their balance and sneaking in opposite directions around the barn. I opened my ears to hear what was going on in the barn.

"Well, nice to see you have finally chosen to grace us with your presence, Kara."

"Oh, come now, Baba, you know I had cheerleading business to take care of."

"And yet, in the time since I turned you, when have you brought me _any_ of your delicious squad members?"

Vamp Kara sighed. " _Please_ , I gave you an in on the football team."

"Yes, James was a... bold move on your part. I will not deny that he has the potential to be very useful when he is chosen by a college. But you still have not given me a single cheerleader. Could it be you are keeping them to yourself, hoping to supplant me?"

Unable to take it anymore, I went invisible and entered the barn, eager to watch this play out. As soon as I was in, vamp me rolled her eyes.

"Still as paranoid as ever, I see. Tell me, what dance shall we do to this tune today, old man?"

"How about the one where _you tell me the truth_?" He yelled. I squinted at the leader. _Wait,_ I thought, _is that Pastor John? He's a_ vampire _in this universe?_

I watched as vamp Kara's face hardened and her mouth thinned to an indecipherable line. "The _truth_? You want me to tell you _the truth_?" I watched her start to pace slowly, keeping eye contact with him the whole time. I was surprised when she didn't start growling. "Those Winchester brothers have finally taken an interest in Stanwood, Washington; even after everything I did to keep us invisible. God only knows why. Shannon lost her brother last week in Iraq, and that filth you call a son has been bullying Hannah, one of _my_ cheerleaders, about her weight again, while you sit idly by and do nothing!Or how about this; rumor on the line has it that not only is that angel who loves the Winchesters back, but two dead angels have been resurrected; one of them a freaking _archangel_! You'll pardon me, _father_ , if I've been a little preoccupied protecting my own to attend your little nest meetings!"

The old man's eyes narrowed as she continued to pace. "These _little nest meetings_ are all that is keeping us together, united, and under the radar!"

I watched Kara scoff and shake her head. "Like hell! _I'm_ what is keeping us under the radar! _I_ make sure those rumors don't spread! _I'm_ the one out there, doing all the leg work and what thanks go I get? An asshole basketball star attacking my girls and a whiny old man who can't even control his own children!"

As soon as the words left her lips, an uproar broke out in that old barn. Quick as I could, I dipped down, grabbed Kara, and flew her back to the bunker, landing in the dungeon and cuffing her into the chair there quickly before taking off to return to the barn. When I got there, I noticed that the boys had elected to stay out of the fray, at least for now. I nodded, thinking that a wise decision. If the enemy is thinning its own ranks for you, why rush in and give them a common enemy to unite against? I lurked with Dean in the corner as we watched the fighting continue. I laid a gentle hand on his shoulder so he would know I was there, and watched his head whip around as his hand flew to his machete. I smiled at him when his eyes met mine, and he relaxed visibly. He grinned back, before praying.

 _I don't see the other Kara in that fray. Did you manage to get her out in time?_

I nodded when he looked over at me, and me smiled and nodded back.

 _Darling,_ Balthazar's voice sounded in my head. _I'm with Cassie and Gabe here and we have Sam, but Dean is missing, and I don't see the other Kara in there. Did you manage to get her?_

 _I did,_ I said. _She's sitting in the bunker's dungeon as we speak. Also, tell Cas he can relax. I'm with Dean right now and we're both perfectly fine; just waiting out the fight._

 _Got that. Message relayed. Stay safe, love._

 _Will do._ I tugged Dean down so I could whisper in his ear. "Everyone is fine; they're all waiting out the fray on the other side of the barn." He nodded, loosening his machete in its sheath. The fighting was clearly starting to die down. From where I stood, I could see a few bodies littered around, the heads separated. I saw James and knew the town would mourn. I saw Sharon, a volleyball player I had known in middle school back home. I saw a few others whom I recognized and would mourn later. Those left standing were not exactly numerous; James at least was a good fighter, I had noticed; taking out at least six vamps, including his father, before being taken down. The others all stared around uncertainly at each other as the fighting died down.

 _Cut off the head and the body will flounder, indeed._ I though with demure amusement. Dean straightened, rolling his head and readying himself to attack. With a thought to Balthazar, we coordinated our attack with the others.

When the six of us emerged, we overwhelmed them pretty quickly. Sure, there were technically more of them, but if your leader was just killed and you were being attacked on both sides by not only the two most infamous and dangerous hunters of your generation, but also by four angels, two of whom _should be dead_ and one of who was the girl who had _just_ been a vampire and _started this fight_ , well, you would be a little confused and probably panic, too. We made short work of the remaining vamps, smiting this way and that as they all struggled to fathom what was happening. The only trouble any of them really gave us came from Aaron, the basketball star that Kara was pissed at for insulting her girls. He saw me, screamed "traitor!" and ran straight at me, ignoring all others. I dodged him easily, but he whipped around and, before I could get the mojo up to smite him properly, sliced across my right wing. I screamed in pain, nearly blacking out, before focusing enough to see Dean standing in front of me, staring at me with his machete in his hand, Aaron's head rolling behind him and the body at his feet. I felt my heartbeat in my wings as something warm soaked them both. I heard a roar that sounded like Balthy and suddenly everything went white.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Thanks for the reviews guys! They are really encouraging! I hope you all didn't mind the cliff hanger. I love those so much! ;D Also, hang in there; we're going to get into Vamp Kara's life story and the boys will become angels real soon! Just gotta get through some of the little moments, like this one...**

* * *

I was floating in warm blackness. It was extremely comforting. All I could feel was the softest, warmest feeling I'd ever felt on my wings. I hummed, feeling the resulting purr rumble through my chest. I didn't want to open my eyes, but something was telling me I needed to. I heard a deep voice murmuring enochian to me. It had the hypnotic quality of Cas' voice from our grooming times, but the timber was... off. Like it was his voice, but not coming from his throat.

 _I need to open my eyes._ I thought, resigned to my fate. I slowly, regretfully opened my eyes, wincing at the glare from the light and quickly closing them again. The light was eclipsed and I gingerly opened my eyes again to a view of Dean's face full of a mixture of worry and hope. As soon as I groaned, his face broke into a grin.

"Hey champ! Nice of you to rejoin the land of the living! How you feeling?"

I groaned. "Like I just spent all last night clubbing." He grinned at me.

"There's that sense of humor we've all been missing!"

I squinted and looked around. I was in one of the spare rooms at the bunker, the one I had originally planned on claiming, before I brought Balthazar back and he decided a room in the bunker wasn't good enough for me. "What happened?" I asked Dean. "How long have I been out?" When I tried to get up, turn onto my back, _anything,_ he stopped me with a gentle pressure on my shoulder.

"None of that, now. You've been out for three days. It took until last night for all of us to convince Balthazar he could leave you alone with me and Sam. The others are all out gathering the ingredients for Sammy and me to become angels."

I smiled as the hand on my shoulder returned to my wings. "If... If Cas is out getting ingredients, why-why can I hear him?" I stuttered out around my purring. I watched Dean flush and look away with an embarrassed chuckle. He jabbed a thumb behind him and I turned my attention to a shelf behind him where a stereo sat. I looked back at him, frowning in confusion.

"It's a uh... It's a healing mantra. We've all been using it on you. The only thing is, Enochian is a _bitch_ to learn. Even just memorizing that mantra was giving me hell, so Cas would murmur the mantra while I groomed you, but then he had to leave, so we recorded his voice to play on a loop while I groomed you. Balthazar wanted to be the one recorded, but you always seemed more relaxed, more willing to purr, when Cas was the one chanting, so we recorded him, instead."

I groaned as he twisted his wrist, hand placing a little more pressure on one of the veins, pushing out tenseness I hadn't even noticed. I sighed happily before saying, "Seriously, though; what happened?"

Dean sighed. "You remember the barn?" At my nod, he continued. "Well, that Aaron kid snuck up behind you and clawed a gash across your wings, just barely missing the point of connection and thankfully stopping just short of one of your oil glands. After I killed Aaron, Balthazar kind of went berserk. The only reason Sam and I survived was Cas and Gabe saw it coming and brought us here. You're an angel now, so you weren't really effected, not to mention that his grace kind of, you know, _likes you_."

I smirked at him. "Well, I should certainly hope so, since we _are_ mated."

Dean smiled warmly at me. "Yeah, you are." He said softly. "Anyway, the newspapers are saying that a bomb went off, destroying the barn and everyone inside; including the star football player, James Alexander, the captain of the basketball team, Aaron Campbell, and the captain of the cheer squad, Kara Wiscom." I groaned, realization dawning on me.

" _Cheer leading! Of course!"_

Dean raised an eyebrow at me and cocked his head.

I shook mine at him. "I was in little cheer when I was in second grade. I've always wondered how different my life would have been had I continued. I guess now I know. Man, I bet mom _loved_ driving me to and from practice everyday!"

Dean gave me a funny look, kind of a confused frown. "Your obit didn't mention a mother. What was her name?"

"Uh..." I blinked in confusion. "Sandy. Sandy Wiscom."

Dean thought for a minute, then shook his head. "No mention of her in the obit."

I frowned. "How is that possible? She is the best mother I could ask for."

Dean shrugged. "Apparently not in this universe."

I shook my head. "What happened here? It's insane!" I started to get up and felt Dean's hand go back to my wing, stroking softly. "Oh no, you don't."

I shot a weak glare his way and he chuckled softly, stroking over my traitorous wings, watching as they relaxed and grew heavy. I whined at him as they squashed me back down onto the bed like they were made of lead, knowing that I would never be able to get up as long as his hands were on my wings.

He chuckled. "Sorry, baby sister. Doctor's orders. You are not to move and we are not to stop grooming your wings. The others will be back tonight."

I sighed and collapsed back on the bed, pouting as my wings spread of their own treacherous accord to give Dean better access.

 _Would you get Dean to let me up, Mr. Grumpy Gills?_

I felt relief and joy thrill through me from our bond and I couldn't help but smile at that. _You've finally come to! Thank father! Sorry darling, but I don't want you tearing your wings open. Castiel convinced me it would be better for your grace if we healed you the slower way, especially since I refused to let either of them use their grace on you and I expended a large amount of my own grace on my outburst in the barn._

I smirked, sighing as Dean found a sensitive spot. _What's the big deal with them healing me? Is there some issue with their grace mingling with mine when we're both mated to other people?_

 _Not usually, I just... Couldn't stand the thought of someone else being near you. It only lasted a few hours, but I have been reliably informed that I was hovering insufferably during that time._ I chuckled, feeling my wings lighten as Dean stopped his ministrations. I tensed, ready to take advantage of the pause to at least sit up, roll over, do _something_ , but I heard a new, amused voice say,

"Nice try, but you need to stay put. Your wings need to heal and your grace needs to recover." New, softer hands went into my wings and I turned my head to glare at the moose, who just chuckled affectionately and started chanting something in a soft intonation.

 _You suck_. I griped at my mate, who sent overwhelming amusement in response. _I'm going to get bed sores and it'll be all your fault._

 _Don't worry, sweetheart. I'll kiss them away._ A vision appeared in my head of Balthazar kissing down my body, spending special time on sores as he healed them with his grace. I gasped at the onslaught and felt my wings get wet.

"Ugh, seriously? Can you two not keep it in your pants while I'm supposed to be grooming you? I don't think he's even in _this time period_! What the hell? Keep your freaking oil to yourself!" I snickered at the look on Sam's face and apologized before blaming it on Balthazar.

"It's not my fault though; Balthy's the one being a wretched tease!"

Sam shook his head and muttered something about getting a room, so I pouted at him.

"We have a whole forest, and we'd be there _right now_ , except we didn't want you boys to feel left out as the only ones still human."

Sam just rolled his eyes and went back to the enochian chant that was supposed to heal me. As he continued, I got more and more uncomfortable as he did his best to avoid the slick coating that was slowly spreading over my wings, oozing out of the glands that ran their leathery lengths. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore. I winced and moved my wings so that he couldn't get at them anymore.

"Sam, stop." I said when he reached for them again, grimacing at the awkward tension filling the room. "This is gross. You shouldn't even be seeing this." He stopped without making a comment, just backed away. I looked up with a grimace to see his face matching mine. _It's like messing around with my brother._ Unable to bear that thought, I focused my attention on my grace, on being clean. When my wings felt clean and dry, I lay back down, but the manure like smell of my pheromones mixing with the wrong person continued and I looked up to Sam, who was wincing in disgust. "You got some on your hands, didn't you?" He nodded and I sighed.

 _How do we get it off his hands?_ I asked Balthazar. _Will grace work?_

 _For the oil, yes, but for the smell, you'll need holy water._

I sighed. "We need Holy Water, Sammy."

He nodded, grimace frozen on his face like it was stuck there. He stood to leave just as Dean walked in. "Hey guys, Gabe called, saying something about you guys needing Holy Water, stat, so I went ahead and blessed some and.." He trailed off as the smell hit him fully, his face scrunching in disgust. "Holy shit, that's disgusting! What the hell have you two been doing?"

Sam rolled his eyes. "Just give me the freaking holy water and let me wash my hands." He snatched the jug from his brother, going to the bathroom adjacent and scrubbing his hands together with the holy water. When he straightened and returned, the smell was gone, replaced by a faint scent of freshly mowed grass. "Thank god." He said. "That was disgusting."

I pulled a face. "No need to be so rude."

"Okay," Dean said, rubbing his temples. "What the hell was that?"

I sighed. "That is what happens when a mated angel cheats."

Dean frowned, rage filtering into his face. "When _what_? What the hell were you two doing?"

I sighed. "We weren't doing anything like that, Dean. I made the mistake of complaining to Balthy about bed sores, trying to convince him to let you guys let me up. He flirted back, it got out of hand."

Sam rolled his eyes. "A remote control fun button. How do you two always manage to come up with the _worst ideas ever?_ "

I smirked. "We just use what's provided us. Of course, I'm pretty sure it was never intended to be used that way, but you know me and Balthy."

Dean and Sam both smirked at me and Sam rolled his eyes. "Wait," Dean said, "So that smell was..."

I sighed. "Sam is mated. So are you. It was the smell of my oil, which doesn't smell like anything to me, is irresistible to Balthy, and would _normally_ just smell to you like a faint smell of mold or manure, except it got on Sam's hands and mixed with his natural oils, causing a chemical reaction of epic proportions that is horrible and can only be fixed with holy water. Of course, no one ever thought to warn me of that before Sam tried to continue grooming me, so I didn't clean myself up right away."

Sam smirked. "Yeah, well, it's not like any of us expected you and Balthazar to come up with something as annoying as a freaking _remote control fun button_."

I shrugged noncommittally. "Yeah, well, you know us."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you're both obnoxious and flirty and quote, 'dreadful teases'."

I snickered. "Yes well, I suppose it backfired on us a bit there."

Sam rolled his eyes. "New rule; as long as Dean or I are grooming you, no talking to your freaking angel. That was _so_ gross."

I smirked. "Yes sir."

"Now," Dean said, "lay back down, Kara. You've got vamp Kara duty, Sam."

Sam chuckled. "Good; let's hope she doesn't _leak_ on me." I stuck my tongue out at him and he grinned before leaving as Dean cleared his throat, turning the CD player back on and placing his hands on my wings as Cas' voice echoed through the room. I sighed, closing my eyes as my wings once again grew heavy, squashing me into the mattress.

 _Hurry up and get back here, assbutt._ I sent over to my much too amused mate as I sighed and drifted back to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

When I came back around, there were feathers on my wings, and a hand playing with my claws.

I grinned, tentatively pushing back in the hopes that I would be allowed onto my back. When the hand gently found its way to my shoulder and the feathers retreated from my wings, I knew I was being allowed up. When Balthazar helped me turn, I looked up to see him beaming at me, eyes alight with love and joy.

"Good morning, sleepy head." He said gently, grinning like a fool.

I smiled back, still a little worn out. "Hi." I whispered. He reached over to the table, smiling, and brought a glass of water to my lips, encouraging me to drink. When he was satisfied, I was allowed to sit up fully. I did so, tucking my wings away with a thought to my grace.

"So, what's everyone been doing since I've been out?"

He smiled. "We have all the ingredients we need for the spell, just waiting for you to wake up."

I nodded. "And Vamp Kara?"

He shrugged. "I tried to get some answers to give you when you woke up, but she wasn't cooperating. Kept asking _us_ the questions, like she wasn't the one tied up."

I scoffed. "What, none of you know how to get answers from an unwilling prisoner? Please; Dean was Alistair's _star pupil_ in hell!"

Balthazar glared at me drily. "Yes, because we were all tripping over each other to torture a seventeen year old version of you."

I sighed. "But she's _not_ me, Balthy."

He shook his head. "Easy for you to say." He muttered.

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. I'm up, so it's my turn. I'll get my questions answered once and for all!" I pushed myself off the bed and Balthazar immediately jumped up, snaking an arm around my waist. I leaned into him, still a little shaky on my feet and grateful for the support.

As we exited the room and entered the dining room, I smiled at the sight of a disheveled Cas and hyperactive Gabriel busying themselves over the ingredients for the spell. Cas, hearing us approach, looked up and grinned; the smile that broke out on his face lighting up his grace.

"Kara! You're up! How are you feeling?"

I smiled as he bustled up, wrapping his arms around me and picking me up, twirling me in a circle. I squeaked a little bit, giggling as he put me down again.

"I'm doing a lot better." I answered him, grinning before turning to Gabe, only to have him do the same. I laughed at them both, their graces both shining almost blindingly with not only their joy at my wakefulness, but also the anticipation of their mates becoming angels.

"So," I said, clapping my hands together and working to get back on track. "Who wants to watch me question myself?"

Gabe smirked as a bucket of popcorn showed up in his hands. "This should be good."

I smirked as Balthazar and Cas rolled their eyes. We all trekked down to the dungeon. I could hear the other Kara questioning Sam and Dean and I occasionally heard a 'shut up' from one of them, but beyond that and a bit of whispered conversation between the brothers, there was silence on the other side of the door. Taking a deep breath, I pushed the door open.

As soon as the door opened, Dean turned to me and grinned. "Thank god you're awake again!"

Sam looked up at me and smiled. "Kara! How're you feeling?"

I smiled back. "A lot better. My other self still giving you trouble?"

Dean grunted his affirmation. "I was hoping to surprise you with info on where your mom is in this universe, but whenever I ask she just laughs in my face."

I frowned. "That actually kind of answers the question, sadly enough."

I walked between them, stepping in far enough for the other Kara to see me. As soon as she did, she scoffed.

"Seriously? Man, you Winchesters have hit an all time low; trying to get a shifter to impersonate me to myself in order to get information."

I smiled at how very _like me_ that reaction was. "I wish it were that easy, sweetheart."

Her eyes shot to slits. "Don't call me that, you _bitch."_

 _Well, mark that on the differences board._ I thought. Still, I couldn't resist the joke put in front of me, so I grinned and said, "not a werewolf either. You done guessing yet?"

She glared at me. "It's asshats like you that I turn."

I smiled. "I guess I'll take that as a 'yes' then." I opened my wings and brought them out. I heard Sam gasp and turned to him. He turned his beaming face on me and said,

"No scar, Kara!"

I smiled indulgently at him. "Yay!" I said, giving him two thumbs up. I turned to my vamp double and said, "Sorry sweetheart, there's a whole hell of a lot more weird going on here than you know."

She just stared at me. "What the hell are you? A dragon of some kind?"

I smiled. "Now we're getting somewhere!" I turned to the others. "Can I have some 'me' time, boys?" I winked at Dean, who rolled his eyes.

"You're unbelievable." He muttered, shaking his head. I grinned.

"Love you too."

He shook his head as he followed his brother out, throwing me one last look. Gabe pouted at me on the way out.

"What happened to 'who wants to watch'?"

I chuckled. "Sorry, Gabe, but I don't think this will go as well with an audience. I'll fill you guys in after I'm done."

He sighed and nodded as he followed the others out, throwing me one last pout before closing the door behind him.

As soon as the door was shut, I sighed and snapped a chair into existence. After turning it backward and straddling the back, I grinned and said,

"Well, let's get started. I hereby offer you the first question."

When Kara just glared at me, I sighed. "Look, you've got questions, I've got questions; why can't we be civilized about this? I'm just trying to be nice."

She smirked. "I thought I got the first question."

I grinned back. "Rhetorical questions don't count. Shoot."

"Who the hell are you? Why do you look like me?"

I smiled. "My name is Kara Wiscom. I'm an absolute nerd. My favorite TV Show is called Supernatural; it's about these two brothers named Sam and Dean Winchester who hunt monsters."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but that ain't a TV show. That's life."

I smiled. "It is in _this_ universe."

She stared at me like I was crazy and I smiled. "What do you know about the 'multiverse theory'?" I asked.

She rolled her eyes. "Sounds like some stupid movie trope."

I grinned. "That's exactly what it is!"

She stared incredulously at me, and I explained. "It's largely considered a tool for lazy writers, but I honestly believe it, so there's that."

"What _is_ it?"

I smiled. I know that tone. She's smelled a good story and she's hooked. "The multiverse theory is the idea that there are millions of different universes out there, each happening simultaneously. Every time anyone makes a decision, a universe splits off for each option that could have been chosen; infinite universes, each with its own differences."

Kara raised an eyebrow. "Tell me you're joking." I grinned at her.

"You haven't heard the best part yet. I fully believe in the validity of the multiverse theory, but I add a little footnote."

Kara rolled her eyes. "I don't think I _want_ to know."

I chuckled. "Well then I guess it's a good thing _I'm_ in charge in here." She rolled her eyes, but stayed silent, waiting for my explanation. "Anyway, the footnote is this; every time an author starts a story, we cause another little offshoot universe; the one we are writing about. Essentially, each author is creator of their own little universe where whatever they write happens."

Kara rolled her eyes. "Wow, talk about a god complex."

I huffed out a short laugh. "Yeah; believe me, it's a problem."

I grinned at her before getting back on track. "Anyway, my turn for a question; where the hell is mom?"

Kara stared at me. "What in the hell are you on about?"

"You know; mom? The woman who made dinner every night, kissed away booboos, _gave birth to you_? Why wasn't she mentioned in the 'survived by' section of your obit?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "Sandy hasn't been my mother since we moved to the island."

"Seriously? That was, like, _first grade!_ I mean, I get they started seeing a marriage counselor then, but she just _took off?_ No custody battle or _anything_?"

Kara shrugged, glaring at me. I shook my head in wonder.

"I just... Wow..." I whispered.

Kara rolled her eyes at me.

"Wait," I said, "then who drove you to and from little cheer, if mom wasn't around to do it?"

Kara smirked. "I thought it was my turn for questions."

"Right, sorry. Go ahead." I said, waving for her to continue.

She nodded. "Well, you explained that multiverse theory of yours to me, but you didn't answer my original question; who _are_ you?"

I shrugged before smiling slyly at her. "Well, I thought I answered it quite adequately, and I _told_ you it's more than just a theory."

She rolled her eyes and I watched as she opened her mouth to respond, only to snap it shut and turn wide eyes on me as the implications of what I said sank in, only to roll them again when I grinned and wiggled my eyebrows at her.

"No." She said.

"No what, darling?"

" _You_ are _not_ me."

I pouted a little. "And why not? We certainly _look_ similar. Why can't I be you?"

"I am not, and under _no_ circumstances _would I be_ , a nerd."

I shrugged. "Why not? Been reading since you were three."

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, then I got busy with little cheer when I was seven and never _ever_ looked back."

I shrugged and smirked at her. "So, no being a nerd? No writing stories?"

She turned a half disgusted, half amused face on me. " _Writing?_ What was your life _like_?"

I smiled. "Well, first off, we stayed on Ridge. Mom and Dad did counseling at least from first grade to fifth grade. I didn't pay much attention after that to their marriage, but they were definitely much better. Oh, and Dad struggled to keep down a job."

She stared at me. "Sandy never left?"

I shrugged. "Nope. Mom and Dad were active in the church. Dad was huge on prayer. Actually, the leader of your nest; John? He's a pastor in my 'verse."

She rolled her eyes. "He's a pastor here, too, genius. Youth pastor. Gets us young. I was just going into sixth grade when he called me to his office during sunday school hour and turned me. No offer, no choice." I turned to stare at her. She rolled her eyes at the incredulous look on my face. "What, you think I _asked_ to be a monster; never age, never die? Go to school every day thirsting for the blood that I can hear pulsing through the veins of my best friends?"

I looked at her, suddenly understanding a little more. "That- that must have been terrible."

She scoffed and shook her head. "Don't try to comfort me. It's your turn for a question, so ask."

I froze, contemplating. She had already pretty much answered all my pressing questions, but I still kind of wanted to hear more. "Well- how did you end up knowing James as well as you do?"

She shrugged. "His sister was in little cheer. His mom drove me there and watched me afterward until Dad picked me up on his way home from work. For a while we half expected to become step siblings, but it never happened. I think Sandy just turned Dad off to any notions of ever loving again. I think he was afraid to get hurt again. After we got into middle school, James asked me out and I said yes." She shrugged. "I don't know if we ever were actually anything _real_ , romantically speaking, at least. It was more domestic, really. We were more like a couple who had been married for years than a couple horny preteens like everyone else our age. We argued, teased each other. Never really kissed or got any farther than that. Never really wanted to."

"You turned him?"

"How did you know that?" She frowned.

I shrugged. "Those five are kind of my boys. Balthy's my mate, and the others have kind of adopted me as a baby sister. I took them to Iverson. I wanted to show them where I always went to think during high school, and James showed up. How else did you think we found you?"

She nodded. "Let me guess, he tried to convince me not to go up against John?"

I nodded and she sighed, shaking her head. "Of course. He was always too afraid of John."

"So, how did you feed?"

Kara smiled. "My girls learned what happened after I missed two weeks of cheer practice. We were always so close. They knew how important cheer was to me."

I nodded in understanding. "They supplied it for you, didn't they?"

She smiled sadly. "Between the twelve of them, they kept me from having to hunt. That's why I never turned them. They understood what happened and still accepted me. Because of them, I never took a life."

I nodded. "Well, that satisfies my curiosity. Your turn. Questions?"

She looked at me. "How is Balthazar alive? Word on the street was Castiel killed him, and Gabriel too."

I sighed. "Not so much." I explained how Gabriel died, then told her everything that happened after I got to this universe. When I was done, she nodded.

"That actually makes sense. Anymore questions on your end?"

I shrugged; I was pretty much out.

"Well, I have one more."

I smiled. "Shoot."

"Bang, bang." She said softly, smiling when I grinned at her. "Well if you didn't do cheer, how did you spend high school?"

I laughed. "Would you believe band?" She stared at me, mouth dropped open. I continued. "I told you I was a nerd. From sixth grade until senior year, I played five different instruments, and during marching season I was on the color guard. Would you believe Friday was the first time I had ever spoken to James? My best friend in high school was Madison Whiler."

Kara's eyes widened. "That weird girl on the drum line? John was eyeing her for the nest."

I grinned. "She talked me into joining swim team. We did girl scouts, bible study, and Action Team together."

"Action Team?"

"A service oriented youth group at church for high schoolers."

Kara nodded. "So, lots of church and band, then?"

I smiled. "Yeah. I played Bari Sax in Jazz Band all four years. It was my favorite class; that and German."

Kara smiled at that. "Frau Bilden."

I chuckled. "Frau Bilden. I took and passed the AP German Test senior year."

Kara sighed. "Thank god. I have been stressing _so bad_ over that! Frau Bilden thinks I'm silly for worrying, but I still don't do grammar well."

I smiled. "Neither do I, honestly."

"But you still passed?"

I smiled. "Don't worry, it comes back when you're under pressure."

She grinned. "Good. Well, no more questions for you; none for me. What say you I meet these boys you like so much?"

I grinned. _Feel free to come back_. I said to Balthazar.

"Finally!" Kara grinned at me, trying not to laugh as Dean's grumpy voice came from the door.

"Relax, Deano. We were just having a heart to heart." She said.

"Is your curiosity satisfied, Kara?" Kara and I grinned at Cas.

"Yes," we said in sync.

Balthazar smiled. "Well; this has been interesting. What do we do now?"

Kara rolled her eyes. "I want to go home. You angels can do that, do it."

"About that... You're kind of dead?"

She stared at me. " _What?_ "

I sighed. "Everyone who was in that barn is."

"James?" I shook my head.

"I'm sorry. If I'd known, I'd have saved him."

Kara shook her head, furiously closing her eyes against the tears leaking down her face. Since her hands were bound, I reached out and wiped them away. "What happened?" She asked in a shaky voice.

"You sparked a battle, love. I wanted to find out what happened in this universe, so I brought you here and went back. Aaron and John's forces decimated James and your other friends. They all got killed, and then we jumped in to clean up the rest. Aaron got the drop on me, and I still had my wings out; Balthy kind of overreacted." My mate chuckled, embarrassment leaking through the bond.

Kara raised an eyebrow at me, waiting for me to continue. "He blew up the barn." I said. She snorted, struggling to hold back her laugh.

"Wow. Of course he did." Her eyebrows drew together. "So I'm the only one left?"

I nodded and she nodded. "Take me back to my girls."

"You can't return to your old life, Kara. Too many questions be raised."

"We have a contingency plan. The only people who will know will be my squad and Daddy. He bought the Johnson's house when I was in third grade. That's why we aren't on Ridge anymore."

My eyes widened. "Like, the huge house on the south end?"

She nodded. "The girls and I can hide out there."

I nodded. "Well, you, definitely. But what about their parents?"

She shrugged. "They already spent all their time with me and their parents never knew. Their parents wouldn't even notice."

"If you say so. I'll take you back." She nodded and I unfastened her cuffs. She stood and turned to the others with a small smile.

"Well, it was nice learning more about you boys; even if it's from myself. Good luck with heaven and the family business. Have fun becoming angels."

They turned startled eyes on me and I shrugged with a small smile.

I held my hand out and Kara smiled, taking it. In a blink we were outside her house. Leaning up, she kissed my cheek. "Good luck, sweetie." She whispered with a small smile. I matched it with one of my own.

"Back atcha, Edward wannabe."

She rolled her eyes and walked up to the front door, turning back to smile at me before walking into that house; the last time I saw this universe's slightly messed up version of me.

I sighed and returned to the bunker to debrief the boys.

* * *

 **A/N: Aaaaaand... That's a wrap! Thoughts? Sorry this chapter took a little long. It was suprisingly hard to write... And Kara never got to kill her(vampire)self... I was really looking forward to writing that confusing monstrosity... Oh well, I like this way better! Thank you so much for all the reviews! They are definitely great motivators when I get busy and don't feel like writing! Sorry we didn't get to the boys becoming angels. I swear I WILL get to that eventually! Hopefully, unless I get seriously side tracked, that will be next chapter! Don't forget to let me know what you think of Kara's "me" time! ;)**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Guys you would not believe the panic attack I just had! I thought I had lost this chapter forever! I couldn't find it anywhere! Thank God I found it on my USB Drive eventually, but I was seriously freaking out. Anyway, let's get some angelic Winchesters up in here! Kara's going to make _sure_ they never become the "Losechesters"! (God that joke is stupid, but it's become so classic now...)**

* * *

I slowly, thoughtfully meandered back in the bunker. My feet carried me to the library where the others were waiting of their own accord.

"So how did it go, Kara?" Sam asked gently, the first of a long stream of questions I knew they were all itching to get the answers to.

I started and shook myself out of my thoughts. "She's going to hide out with her squad at her dad's house. She swore not to tell anyone else."

"And you trust her?" Dean asked me.

I nodded. "I know the difference between Kara making a promise and Kara just saying the words. She was sincere. Besides, it doesn't make sense for her to betray her own secret."

"How do you know she won't kill again?" Dean asked, still unsure.

I sighed. "She never killed anyone to begin with, Dean." I told them everything that she had told me about being turned and how her squad had helped her ensure that she would never take a life.

He stared at me, a prominent worry line on proud display, splitting his forehead. "They just let her feed?"

I smiled. "That's the funny thing about being Kara Wiscom, something we have both noticed; no matter what she is or who she befriends, those friends always end up _very_ protective when the shit hits the fan." I grinned at Dean, who smiled a little back; flushing just slightly, and nodding his understanding. "Besides," I continued, "If you think about it, she's not taking anything that doesn't get naturally replaced on a regular basis; she is careful not to take too much, and there _are_ twelve of them."

"So, we let her go." Sam said. "What next?"

I grinned at him. "Who's up for some angelic turning rituals?" Gabe grinned at me and jumped up, dragging a chuckling Sam up and out the door without a moment's delay. Cas smiled and shook his head before making eye contact with Dean, who just grinned and joined hands with him, pulling him out after Sam and Gabe. I smiled at Balthy, taking his hand and slowly following my brothers out of the study.

When we were all assembled in the dining room, Balthazar went straight to the mixing bowls. "Alright, whose is whose?" Gabe placed a golden feather next to the one on the right, and Cas placed a jet black feather next to the one on the left. Balthazar smiled. "Any preferences on who wants to go first?" Gabe and Sam simultaneously grinned and nudged their brothers forward.

I smiled and helped position Destiel; Dean was to the right of the table, and a few feet in front of him, Cas stood, grinning at him. They took each others' hands and just stood there, allowing me to sprinkle the salt around them. While I did so, Sam approached his brother with a napkin and a bowl. Dean sighed and pulled a knife out of his belt, cutting his palm and bleeding into the bowl until Cas nodded and he took the cloth from his brother, wiping the knife off before putting it back in his belt. Just as he was about to wrap his hand, Cas murmured something and he stopped, smiling slightly as he watched the angel take his hand and heal the slice with a touch.

Sam returned to the table as I completed the circle; grabbing the second bowl and napkin and pulling his own knife out. He set it to his palm and Gabe stopped him. "Not yet. We need to have fresh or well preserved blood. There's no way of knowing how long it'll be before our ritual." Sam hesitated, but when he looked at Gabe, he nodded and put his knife back away.

Balthazar took the bowl of Dean's blood and poured it into the premade mixture of unmentionables, before grabbing Cas' feather in one hand and the holy oil in another. He simultaneously poured the holy oil in and mixed it with Cas' feather while he murmured softly in enochian. I was astonished to find I understood the words.

 _Blood and oil,_

 _Fire and Death,_

 _Human to Angel_

 _Until Earth's last breath._

My eyes widened at Gabe, who grinned and winked at me. "Pretty cool, huh?" I chuckled, nodding at him.

Balthazar smiled, finishing with the mixture before he handed it to Sam and came around to my side.

"Here is the part where we need Gabe and Sam's help."

"Yeah, you do." Gabe grinned, joining us as Sam stood from his task. He turned to the three of us and raised his eyebrows at us. I saw Gabe do something out of the corner of my eye and Sam smirked and rolled his eyes before joining the little row of spectators we had made. I turned my attention to Cas and Dean, who had their foreheads together and were murmuring quietly to each other, faces frozen in matching blissful expressions. I smiled and heard Gabe scoff before he cleared his throat. They didn't break apart, but they turned their heads so their eyes could rest on Gabe. I felt Balthy scoff and smiled at them. Gabe sighed and intoned in enochian,

"Here you bind yourself to this human forever; offering him a piece of your grace to seal the bond eternally."

I raised my eyebrows and turned to look at Balthazar, who was grinning back.

 _How else did you think we started sharing emotions so completely? We have bonded in the most complete way we possibly can._

I nodded. _You gave me a piece of your grace. Is that why it felt like my very being was being torn apart and put back together?_

After his nod, my attention was drawn to Cas, who had started to glow, ripple after ripple traveling through his grace. I stared as his black wings burst violently from his back. He intoned something in a language none of us spectators understood, but I could tell from the enraptured look in his eyes that Dean did. I leaned into Balthazar, weak in the knees with how precious this all was. I could feel the amusement rolling off him as he coughed to cover a snicker. Laughing at me as Dean and Cas became one was probably not a good idea if he wanted to stay on Dean's good side.

As Cas neared the completion of his vow, he placed a hand to Dean's shoulder, sneaking under his sleeve to place his hand flush against the handprint there. As he finished the last part, Dean gasped and Cas started to glow more violently, his grace pulsing now.

Once he was done, Dean was fully leaning into his forehead, his eyes closed; Gabe cleared his throat and turned to Dean. Cas gently murmured something to him and he leaned back far enough to stare into Cas' eyes. Then he opened his mouth and started an inane babble which sounded like it could be the same language Cas had just spoken. Cas smiled warmly at him as he continued, his eyes shining as Dean continued. When he had finished, Cas wrapped his arms and wings around his mate and then there was an explosion of light. Sam shielded his eyes and I gawked.

"What was _that_?" I whispered.

"Cas' grace is mixing with Dean's soul." Gabe said. "This is what it is like to watch the union. Yours happened the same way." I watched, grinning, as wings slowly appeared from Dean's back; long, elegant wings, dark brown with spots near his shoulders. Something tickled my memory, but I firmly pushed it down.

When Dean looked up at me, I grinned, squealed, and, unable to take it anymore, ran up to him, throwing my arms around his neck. He caught me, chuckling.

"Careful there, sport. I'm not too stable on my feet yet."

"Your wings are so beautiful, Dean!" I squeezed his neck and he squeezed me tighter back.

I saw a hand on his shoulder and looked at Sam's grinning face. "Who would have thought it, my brother's an angel now." Dean's chuckle gusted across my ear and it occurred to me I should probably let the man - _angel_ \- breathe. I let go of Dean and he said,

"Enjoy it while you can, Sammy; you're next, bitch."

Sam rolled his eyes and murmured, "Jerk" with a soft smile on his face.

Gabe came up behind us. "What's the symbol on Dean's wings look like, Kara?" I blinked. I'd been so focused on the wings themselves that I'd completely forgotten his grace. When I looked, though, I was hardly helpful to anyone. I just started sniggering uncontrollably.

"Kara?" Cas asked, sounding slightly offended.

"Sorry, sorry, it's just- it's a trenchcoat with wings."

Sam frowned at me. "And that's funny because...?"

"There's a baby bottle in the pocket."

Cas rolled his eyes. "Isn't that only applicable if I _don't_ have my 'mojo', as Dean calls it?"

I shrugged. "Sorry, it's your catchphrase now."

Dean shook his head and flexed his wings. Cas grinned at the movement and I suddenly thought to to check Cas' symbol again. Sure enough, there were two wings on either side of the crossed gun and rose.

I gasped in delight and clapped my hands. "Cas! Your symbol has wings now!"

He grinned. "Good. Well, that means Dean is _definitely_ an angel now."

Dean groaned, trying (and ultimately failing) to stretch his wings. "Can we please move this outside? I need some grooming!"

We all grinned and went to the backyard, where Dean lay down, Sam and Gabe on his left and me and Balthy on his right, stretched his wings to us, and lay his head in the lap of a beaming Cas. We all groomed his wings and soon his wings relaxed completely as Dean started purring and Cas started giving voice to his thoughts, much like Balthy had done for me.


	14. Chapter 14

When we were nearly done grooming Dean, I went inside to make as much green bean and tuna noodle casserole my oven could manage. Dean eats like a tank on a normal day, but his soul just fused with grace, so he's going to be even hungrier than ever, so I made as much as I possibly could in one go, filling the oven with casserole dishes and starting on a pie.

I may or may not have also mojo'd it to get done faster, so it would be done by the time they were done grooming him.

When they came back in, Dean grinned and said, "Food! Oh, I'm starving! You're the best, Kara!"

I grinned. "I know. Go sit, I'll dish up." Everyone else helped set the table while Balthy helped me pull all the casserole dishes out of the oven. When we got them all out and onto the table, everyone was already seated.

"Dude, that smells awesome!" Sam grinned at me. "One each?" I smiled a little and shrugged.

"Dean eats a lot normally, I know how hungry I was after getting grace, so I figured he would eat a lot."

I smiled at Dean, who had already dished up and dug in. His wings shuddered as he moaned around his fork and I laughed when his wings knocked the ceiling light swinging. Gabe sighed irritably.

"Cas, will you get him to put those away? At least while we're trying to eat!"

Cas shook his head slightly at his dramatic older brother before leaning over to put his hand on Dean's shoulder, over the handprint, and whisper in his ear. Dean stiffened, his pupils exploding in size before he shuddered and his wings disappeared before Cas leaned back with a grin and Dean closed his eyes, taking steadying breaths. I tried not to laugh, especially since I knew what it was like to be in that position, but that was fighting an uphill battle, and I snorted quietly before regaining my composure.

He's actually got it worse than you, though. Balthy's voice echoed in my head.We were allowed to escape right away for some play time. Since you made sure dinner was ready right away after his grooming, they haven't gotten to bang out the jitters yet.

Startled, I looked at my mate, who raised an eyebrow with a small smile on his face. I looked at Dean, took in his flushed face and the short breaths, the way he would close his eyes and stop for a bit every so often.

"Sam." I said, jerking my head at the door. Sam got the clue and followed me into the kitchen.

"What's up, Kara?"

I sighed, turning to face him as soon as we were in the next room. "How long are you willing to wait to become an angel? Cas and Dean need some alone time so he can recover properly."

Sam rolled his eyes. "There's an image I'm never getting out of my head."

I smirked and rolled my eyes right back before turning a serious eye on him. "Really, though, are you cool? We could probably do it, just Balthy and I, but I think Dean would want to be there for you, like you were for him."

Sam nodded. "I'm good. We can wait. Dinner?" He half turned toward the dining room. I smiled and we went back to sit down to dinner. Everyone looked up at us, but only Dean said anything.

"You guys okay there, Kara?"

I nodded. "Just discussing how we're going to go about turning Sammy."

Dean shrugged. "We can start the ritual once we're done with dinner."

I looked at Balthazar, who raised an eyebrow at me and took a deep breath. "No."

It was Dean's turn to raise an eyebrow at me. "I'm sorry; no?"

I sighed and sat down, locking eyes with him. "Dean, you can't even eat consistently for five minutes. Not since Cas had you put your wings away. I'm surprised they aren't back out and completely coated with oil. You and Cas need to go burn some of that energy off."

Dean rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine, Kara. Sammy-"

"Wants you at the top of your game while you're helping change me." The moose interrupted his brother. "The last thing any of us needs is you dropping something or messing everything up because all blood needed for rational thought has fled your brain and taken refuge in your dick." Dean jerked his gaze to glare at his brother and Gabe snickered.

"Yeah, we need you thinking with your upstairs brain during this, Deano."

Dean transferred his glare from his brother to the archangel. His glare melted like snow on a summer day, however, when Cas place a hand on his shoulder.

"Dean," he said softly, "are you sure we can't take a break? I doubt it will take that long."

Dean sighed, sagging as all fight left him. "Fine! You guys win. Let's go, Cas." He turned to his mate, who grinned and closed his eyes, flying away with Dean in tow.

I smiled and turned to Gabe and Sam, who were standing near me. "So," I said, clapping my hands together. "Who wants to watch a movie?" Gabe grinned and, with a snap of his fingers, each of the rest of us were holding a copy of the extended edition DVDs of Lord of the Rings."

I smirked. "I don't think it's going to take 24 hours for Dean to feel better, Gabe."

He grinned and winked. "Trickster," he said, motioning to himself. "Remember?"

I laughed and turned to make sure Sam was okay with it and he just shrugged and offered a small smile.

"One 24 hour long Lord of the Rings marathon it is!" I crowed, pumping my fist. Balthazar chuckled, taking my hand and pulling me into the main room before turning to Sam, a question in his eyes. Sam smirked and brushed past us towing a grinning Gabe, who quirked an eyebrow and motioned to me in a come hither motion. I cracked up, dragging Balthy along behind me as Sam led us to the hall all the bedrooms were off. Instead of turning into his room, though, he went to the end of the hall on the right, the door to the extra bedroom; the one I had planned to stay in until Balthy showed up.

We went in and I mojo'd up a big, plushy four seat sofa. Gabe grinned at me before getting a running start and leaping into the sofa with a loud cry of joy. Sam chuckled, shaking his head with a fond grin as he settled down next to Gabe, who promptly curled into the giant torso beside him.

I grinned and plopped beside Sam, leaning into him a little so Balthazar could get situated before shifting my weight so I was halfway in Balthy's lap. I looked to the TV and pouted.

"Aw, come on! We all just got situated!" My finger flew to my nose as I cried, "Nose goes!"

Sam snorted and shook his head with a grin as Gabe rolled his eyes. He snapped, and the menu for the Fellowship of the Ring was playing on the TV. I grinned and snapped a remote into existence, turning subtitles on and setting the movie to start playing.

True to Gabe's word, we spent the next twelve hours with popcorn, theater candy, orcs, humans, dwarves, elves, and hobbits.

As soon as the credits rolled, Dean stumbled in with Cas, all grins. I raised an eyebrow to Gabe, who grinned and winked. I snickered and burrowed deeper into Balthazar's shoulder.

Dean watched the credits roll and frowned once he figured out what we had watched. "Wait; the Lord of the Rings? We weren't gone anywhere near long enough for you to make it through that; even if you only watched the Return of the King! It was only like half an hour, tops! Cas was being insanely careful and touchy about overwhelming me."

I grinned. "You assume you weren't gone that long."

He stared at me like I was stupid.

I snorted and looked to Gabriel, who sighed dramatically and said, "Hello! Archangel! How quick you are to forget TV land, or the Mystery Spot!"

I rolled my eyes and Sam sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose before addressing his mate. "I thought we were trying to forget that little hiccup, Gabe."

"Well don't anyone forget it so thoroughly that you forget what I'm capable of!"

I rolled my eyes. "I think what he's getting at, Dean, is that he locked you two lovelies in a time bubble so that we could marathon the trilogy without you interrupting."

Dean scoffed. "Of course you did. You of course didn't even think to ask if I wanted to join. Anyway, I'm sated, you guys have watched your freaking movie; can we continue?"

I grinned at him. "Put your wings away, will you? They're still soaked."

Dean glared at me without a word as his wings disappeared. He turned on his heel, grabbed Cas' hand (who was grinning widely and trying not to laugh) and stormed out. I followed him, chuckling, with Balthy in tow.

Gabe elected the quick way and zapped himself and Sam into the study. When Balthy and I got there, Sam was bleeding into a small ceramic bowl. I grinned and grabbed the salt, moving Sam and Gabe with small nudges until I could sprinkle salt around them. When I was done, I went and stood next to Cas, who drew me in for a gentle sidehug. I smiled as he leaned into Dean, who had given Balthy the bowl of Sam's blood and crossed to stand on the other side of Cas, snaking an arm around his waist.

I watched Balthy mix the ingredients together with Gabe's feather before stepping to Sam and Gabe, who were standing in the circle. Gabe had been watching Balthy like a hawk and doing his damnedest not to fidget; his fingers occasionally twitching where they were enveloped in Sam's mammoth hands. Sam was smiling and murmuring calming phrases as his thumbs traced circles into the archangel's hands.

I tried not to snicker as Balthazar said, without looking up from his concoction, "Stop fidgeting, Gabriel, or you'll wiggle yourself right out of the circle."

I snorted before coughing to cover myself.

"He's right, brother." Cas said gently. "He trusted me and I trusted you; It's your turn to trust Balthazar. He won't do this wrong, and you can't do it yourself from within that circle."

Gabe sighed and nodded, leaning forward to stick his nose into the crook of Sam's neck. Sam smiled and his hands found their way to Gabe's back, rubbing small circles there.

As soon as Balthy stepped forward I moved to join him, taking the bowl and pouring its contents over the salt of the circle. As soon as I was done and had moved away, Cas moved to stand in front of them and I moved to take his place between Balthazar and Dean. I felt Balthy's arm snake around my back and leaned into him with a smile as Cas began the bonding ceremony itself.

As he intoned it all in enochian, Gabe started glowing, even brighter than Cas had. As he intoned his vows in their strange heart language, I winced, bringing my hand up to shield my eyes as a deep, ancient voice boomed from Gabe's throat, far older and more powerful than either of his brothers. I turned back into Balthy's shoulder and felt his hand go to my shoulder. I felt another hand on my back, but ignored it in favor of burrowing myself as deep as I could into Balthy's chest. It all stopped as suddenly as it began and I heard Sam's voice ring out with words in that same language. I peeked out, but the power was still so blinding that I couldn't stand it. I turned back into Balthy's chest and buried my face as far as it would go. I could feel concern radiating along our bond from my mate, so I sent him a picture of what I was seeing. He sent me confusion and a vision through his eyes. It was… normal. Completely the same. No one glowed.

Did Cas glow earlier? I asked.

Confusion was joined by a memory again, this of Cas and Dean staring at each other with gooey eyes, but otherwise completely normal as they bonded.

I think it has to do with my ability to see your grace. I said, wondering at the discovery.

Gabe must be overwhelming because he is an archangel. Balthazar said, nudging me gently. Either way, it's over now, and you should probably return to yourself before Dean or Gabriel have aneurysms.

Sighing, I slowly turned out of Balthazar's chest to find everyone staring at me except Gabriel. He was pacing like he was going insane; wings twitching and his grace, which should be tinged and pink and red and orange by his love and lust for Sam, was quickly being overcome by a bright purple as he was filled with panic concern for me. I sighed.

"Calm down, Gabe. I'm fine. Don't have a panic attack."

His grace was flooded with vermillions and midnight blues as he whirled to face me in relief. "Thank father you're okay!"

I smiled. "I'm fine. You just have a lot more power packed in your little body than Cassie does, Mr. Archangel."

Gabe frowned. "What do you mean?"

Watching an angel turn a human is kind of overwhelming when you can see their grace, buddy."

"That does make sense." Sam said, nodding and shifting his wings awkwardly in a feeble attempt to cover the obvious tent in his jeans.

I made eye contact with Dean and grinned at him before we both snorted, earning a glare from the moose.

"So, Kara…" Balthy started, "does Gabe's moose have wings?" Catching his drift, I shifted my attention to Gabe's wings, and sure enough; there on either side of the cartoon moose, were wings.

I nodded before turning to Sam. "Sammy, would you spread your wings again? It's not like you could save your dignity at the moment, and I want to see Gabe's symbol."

The younger Winchester flushed an even deeper red, all the way to the tips of his ears, and spread his brown speckled wings. There, in the lower corner of his right wing, was Gabe's symbol.

I smirked. "Figured as much." I said, rolling my eyes.

"What?" Gabe asked, puffing out a little.

I rolled my eyes. "It's a lollipop with wings, Mr. Sweet Tooth."

Dean laughed. "It figures my brother would have a candy ass mate."

"Dean." Cas said reproachfully. "That was very rude."

Dean rolled his eyes at Gabe's glare. "Fine, I'm sorry. Jeez, you're all touchy."

I smirked. "He just needs a lay." Clapping, I said, "Well, I'm taking my angel to bed. I suggest you boys do the same."

I grabbed Balthy's hand just as Gabe called, "don't forget your safe words." I turned back and winked at my new brother, who smirked and waved us off, grabbing Sam's hand as we took off toward my forest and our tree.


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Hey guys! So I've had this chapter for a while but forgot to upload it. I also saw the weird thing that happened to chapter 14, SO sorry about that! That chapter has been fixed, so you can read it like I know y'all want to. ;) I hope you guys are ready for some craziness, because I'm cranking that up in the next chapter! (You'll see what I mean)**

* * *

The next few weeks were, by archangelic decree, relatively uneventful. Sam, Dean and I hunted, crisscrossing the country in Baby, since Dean insisted she not be put out of commission.

Gabe, Cas and Balthazar spent increasing amounts of time in heave, and sometimes we wouldn't see them for a few days, but they always stopped in at least once a week to give updates and spend time with their mates. We would each get groomed by the others once a might, and when our mates stopped in, we would also get groomed by them.

Have grace made our hunts almost too easy. Things that might have taken care and prep were finished in five minutes. If we didn't know what something was or how to kill it, a shot of angelic grace would generally do the trick, with the obvious exception of angels.

The regular monsters we still killed the old way, and Sam and I took advantage of the time not having to research afforded us to talk and consider the approach we should take to heaven. Occasionally Dean would pipe in with his opinions, but he never liked research, which he assumed we were doing most of the time, so he would generally leave us strategizing while he went to get food. By this time, none of us _needed_ to eat or sleep really, but renting a motel gave us a home base while in each town as we got there, and all three of us took some comfort in meditating when we used to sleep and eating what and when we used to eat.

Eventually, Dean figured out what we were really discussing and, as it turns out, he _was_ interested in discussing strategy after all.

Sam and I were pacing opposite each other, throwing out ideas. I had sighed because we were getting nowhere.

"Well, the whole point of this is to try to convince the angels to hold a democracy where they all get a say and can vote."

"Why don't you use your writer mojo for it?" Dean, who had just walked in, asked. When we both stopped and turned to him, he raised an eyebrow at us.

"Is this what you've been doing while I leave?"

Sam shrugged. "You didn't seem that interested when you piped in before."

Dean rolled his eyes. "Well, now you know better. So, why don't you?"

I frowned. "Why don't I what?"

Dean shook his head, taking a deep breath. "Why don't you just use your writer mojo?"

I started. "Oh! Well, we discussed that, but we realized that would be a _huge_ culture shock and would just cause mass chaos. We're going to try to ease them into it, get them used to the idea first. Gabe will probably still need to lead, but-"

Sam interrupted and finished my sentence. "But not full time. He needs to be able to delegate at least a little bit of the work."

A smirk passed over Dean's face, barely staying long enough for me to notice before he cleared his throat, composing himself. I felt a small grin settle on my face. I knew Sam would get some ribbing for that later.

"Ok, so we get them used to it. What's the first step?"

I shrugged. "That's what we're trying to figure out. The angles have all insisted we not show our faces there yet, so there's not much we can do to help but make plans. Metatron's still around, but they left him with the tribe of Two Rivers and a warning not to try to trick any other angel into closing heaven." Dean smirked.

"Well, he better listen to them. Although I kind of hope he doesn't." I turned to Dean in time to watch his pupils explode. I rolled my eyes.

"Dean, if you think it's that sexy, I'm sure we can trick one of those idiot hunters who hate you into getting the drop on you. Then Cas can come rescue you."

Sam snorted before covering it with a cough. We shared a grin as Dean rolled his eyes. "Ha ha, you guys are _hilarious._ "

I just shook my head. "So, what we were thinking was to do a parliament type system; you know, split the angelic hierarchy into levels. Maybe groups of 100, then they elect a representative to go to the next level, on up to the top, where our three would be."

Dean frowned. "What about corruption?"

"We can address that. There's six of us, and I think between us, we can keep any of the other groups from becoming too corrupt."

"Keep in mind; to rebel used to mean falling. These guys aren't used to not being completely controlled." Sam said. "Maybe if we can keep them all in their garrisons? Then they can just choose garrison leaders and we can meet with them to discuss things."

I felt hands settle on my waist. "As much as we all like that idea, Sam, I don't think we should set up those sorts of hierarchies. We're trying to break them of all that." Balthy spoke from behind me, his deep voice vibrating against my back.

I frowned and turned around, wrapping my arms around him as well. "So, drop it entirely? No chance for them to get used to the loss? Wouldn't that cause massive culture shock?"

Balthazar grinned and dropped a kiss to my nose as Cas' voice sounded out from where I knew Dean was standing earlier. "If we let them go halfway, they'll want to stop there and not go any further. There's already too many power hungry angels like Metatron who want to take over. We need to completely level the playing field; ensure that everyone is equal in rights."

I raised an eyebrow. "Does that include Gadreel?" Gabriel whirled to face me and Balthazar frowned at me as Cas' brows scrunched together.

"How do you know that name?"

I shrugged. "When Metatron closed the gates of heaven, he kicked everyone out. _Everyone_."

Gabe's eyes widened. "Like, a jailbreak?"

I nodded. "Is that such a bad thing?"

Balthazar stared at me. "How is it not? Do you know what he did?"

I shrugged. "Seems to me he took a stand for free will. Is that so bad?"

Gabe frowned. "He disobeyed a direct order."

I rolled my eyes. "So do you, like all the time. In fact all of us in this group have disobeyed heaven."

"The difference is we _rebelled._ We disobeyed on purpose because we disagreed. He just fell asleep on duty."

"Did he? Or did he just _say_ he did?"

Balthazar frowned thoughtfully. He knew where I was going with this. "Why is this so important to you?"

I sighed, laying my forehead on his chest. "Look, Gadreel was irritating at first, and Dean never should have helped him possess Sam, but he was dying, and Gad _did_ help him, and in the end, he came through for them. Sure, he let Metatron sweet talk him and killed Kevin, but so did Cas, and Cas let Naomi talk him into killing Samandriel, so Gadreel is practically Team Free Will already. Besides, he's actually not too bad a guy." I murmured the last part, almost too quiet for anyone else to hear.

I didn't have to see Cas to know he was drooping in shame. I could hear Dean growl at me.

I rolled my eyes and turned out of Balthazar's embrace. "God dammit, Cassie! I'll bring him back tomorrow! Cut this guilt crap! I don't blame _you_ , I blame Naomi!" I turned to Gabe. "By the way, I want to kill her. No one else gets her."

Gabe's eyebrows shot to his hairline. "But you don't want to kill Metatron?"

I sighed. "Metatron is stupid, and he tricked Cas into closing heaven, but Cas wouldn't have been in the position he was if it hadn't been for Naomi using her mind control on him! I'm okay with cunning, in fact I expect it from any halfway decent villain, but I draw the line at mind control!"

I stomped, making the lights flicker as Sam snorted before coughing to cover himself. I stuck my tongue out at him and Dean grinned before interjecting.

"So," he spoke up, "What did we learn from this? Let's see; Gadreel good, Naomi bad; cunning good, mind control bad. Sum it up?"

I rolled my eyes. "Sure, whatever, jerk."

"Bitch," Sam and Dean both fired back. Sam snickered and Dean winked at me.

Shaking my head, I snapped my paper up, grinning as I watched words appear on the paper. I snapped my pencil up.

"Where should I put him?"

Gabe frowned. "Who?"

I rolled my eyes. "Alfie, obviously! Have you not been listening? I _want him back!_ "

Gabe smirked. "I thought you were saving that for tomorrow. Change your mind?"

I stuck my tongue out at him. "So what if I did? Got a problem with that?"

He grinned, shaking his head. "Impatient. Bring him here. He's going to be confused, and we're going to need to explain things to him."

Nodding, I applied my pencil to the page with a small smile.

Samandriel is standing in the dining room.

And he was. "Wha-? Gabriel? Balthazar? I thought you were both dead." He blinked, his eyebrows drawing together as he turned a confused gaze on Cas. "I thought _I_ was dead." Dean puffed angrily and I smacked the back of Cas' head when I saw shame tinging his grace with the color of dried blood.

"Don't you even dare, Cassie. For once you're not to blame for the death of an angel you killed. Face it."

Cas and Dean both smiled gratefully at me as Alfie turned to me.

"Who are you?" I grinned before I snapped my paper away. His eyes widened and he whirled on his brothers.

"You've been practicing forbidden magic!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Forbidden? You forgot to mention that little detail." I said with a small smirk.

Gabe shrugged. "If you haven't noticed, my siblings are just a little racist. You think they would encourage angels falling in love with and turning humans? Besides, we all _fell_ from heaven; I think one little forbidden spell is hardly going to damn any of us worse that we already are."

I smiled. "Okay, I guess I can understand that one."

"Would someone care to tell me what is going on?"

Cas turned to his brother. "This is Kara, Samandriel. She is the scribe for this universe."

I shook my head. "Great sugarcoating, Cassie."

The brunette just shrugged as Alfie frowned. "You're… you _what_?"

I shrugged. "Well, how do you think Balthy and Gabe came back?"

"Okay.. Why am _I_ back?"

I grinned. "Because you're adorable, and you're one of the few angels who _isn't_ a complete asshole or one hundred percent a tool."

He cocked his head at me with a frown and I sighed.

"Basically, she likes you and was upset that you died, so she brought you back." Sam said with a smirk.

I stuck my tongue out at him and everyone laughed, except Alfie. He just stared hard at me. "You like me? Why?"

I shrugged. "You remind me of Cas when he first met Sam and Dean. He was innocent like you, too."

Balthazar smirked. "So, Samandriel, what do you say? Will you help us reform heaven?"

Alfie's eyes widened, and he seemed about to say something, but when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. He closed his mouth, cleared his throat and tried again. I snuck a glare at Gabe, who shrugged in a display of innocence.

Finally, Alfie's voice came back. "I-I can't. I can't help you destroy everything I have worked millennia to protect." He looked to the ground. "I'm sorry. I know you brought me back to help, but I can't." His eyes were trained on the ground and I couldn't stop myself.

Putting a hand to his face, I lifted his chin. "Hey," I said softly, "It's okay. We're not going to force you. I didn't bring you back for any purpose. I _like_ having you alive and kicking. It has nothing to do with you helping us, and I'm not going to force you, or let anyone else force you. The whole point of free will is just that; _free will_. It has to be your decision."

"You shouldn't go back to heaven, though, Samandriel." Cas interjected.

The young angel turned to Cas. "Why not?"

Gabe sighed. "Naomi still commands a lot of heaven's forces. We have been able to undermine her, but it is going slowly. Don't wanna have to bring you back twice."

"Don't worry, Alfie, I'd do it." I insisted stubbornly.

Alfie's face fell into resignation. "Alright, well where should I go, then?"

Gabe smiled. "I've got a safehouse in Australia. You still like Australia, right Alf?"

The angel flushed. "Come on, Gabriel, that was _three millennia_ ago!"

I chuckled softly. "If you want, we can send you there, but I want you to stay with us for at least a few more days. You don't have to help us, I just want to get to know you."

Balthazar sent confusion over our link.

 _I have a hunch about him._

 _You_ are _the author for this universe._ Balthazar said. _Who are you shipping him with?_

I grinned and winked at him conspiratorially. _Charlie is due to show up while visiting her mom soon._

Balthazar rolled his eyes. Suddenly, Dean's voice was on my prayer line.

 _Come on, save the flirting for the bedroom! We're all right here!_

I flushed. "Sorry Dean, just talking."

He smirked and rolled his eyes. "Sure. You were _just talking_. So why do you want Samandriel to stay with us?"

"It's just for a few days! I hardly know him, outside of the show! I want to get to know him better!"

Sam smirked. "Uh huh, sure. Or you ship him with someone."

I turned my best insulted face on him. "What would ever give you _that_ idea?"

He smirked. "You looked more impudent than horny when you and Balthazar were flirting. I think you were actually plotting."

Balthy held his hands up in defense. "I take no part in this!"

I stuck my tongue out at both of them. "Whatever. I'll tell you what; it'll make sense on Wednesday, okay?" I turned to Alfie. "Are you okay to stick around that long?"

He frowned. "I suppose. Why?"

I smiled innocently. "I want to get to know you better."

Gabe rolled his eyes. "You are up to no good, Kara. I can tell."

I threw my hands up in surrender. "Maybe I like having Alfie around! Why do I suddenly have to be plotting something?"

Sam smirked. "You're an author. You're always plotting something. That's why they call it _a plot_. The only trouble is you won't share with the class."

"Fine! You caught me! I'm an author! Sue me! That doesn't mean I have some nefarious master plan!"

Sam grinned, shaking his head. "Authors always have some nefarious master plan."

I scoffed. "Fine! I _might_ have an extra reason for wanting Alfie here! Sue me!"

Cas frowned. "What is it?"

I stuck my tongue out at all of them, throwing myself wholeheartedly into a pout. "I'll never tell, so you'll just have to find out in two days!" I turned to Alfie, cranking my puppy dog eyes to the max. "Will you stay? Please? I _promise_ you'll like my plan!"

Alfie rolled his eyes, smiling softly at me. "Sure, I guess I can handle your 'awesomeness'" -he _finger quoted_ that! Like I'm not _actually_ awesome!- "for two days."

I squealed and squeezed him tight, giggling as I released the chuckling, slightly stunned angel.

 _Wait, isn't Charlie gay?_ Balthazar said.

I grinned. _Well, yeah, but Alfie is just the vessel. Samandriel can get a new one. Meatsuits are relatively easy to make, and then he doesn't have to worry about ruining some poor human's life._

I looked at him just in time to see him roll his eyes. I grinned, looking forward to the next two days.


	16. Chapter 16

The next two days turned into two weeks relatively quietly. I spent most of it making everyone think I was insane with how much time and effort I put into teaching Alfie nerdy things. I put him through the Hobbit extended editions, then the Lord of the Rings extended editions, then all seven of the Star Wars movies and Game of Thrones, which I had actually never seen before. He read Narnia and Harry Potter and all of Tolkien's works of fiction. He took the house test and came out as Gryffindor (no surprise there, considering).

By fifteen days, I was beginning to think maybe I mistranslated time in my universe into time in this universe. Sam and Dean were so sick of staying put that they took to flying to different parts of the world ("you know, Kara, Rome is really beautiful this time of year").

I sighed and left to check on Charlie again, wondering why she wasn't just coming. With a sigh, I left the hospital room where she was reading The Hobbit to her mom. Why is it always The Hobbit? I already knew the answer, but I was going stir crazy in the bunker, and running out of excuses for Samandriel to stay with us. I went back to the bunker just in time to see the boys returning from the Caribbean. When Dean saw me appear, he grinned.

"Dude," he said, "You need to go on a cruise with us sometime. The massages on there were phenomenal!"

I smiled. "Maybe I will." I opened my mouth to say more, but just then Dean's phone rang. He smiled apologetically, but when he checked the caller ID, he frowned, flicking it open and turning on the speakerphone.

"Hey, Charlie, what's up?" I smiled. Finally, I thought.

"Hey, Dean, what do you know about Angels?" He frowned, looking to Sam, who shrugged, then turning to me, his frown deepening when he saw my expression.

"Not too much; Sammy is better at facts and research, but we could probably ask Cas. Why, what's up?"

"Cas would be able to recognize an angel, right?"

"Charlie, tell me what's going on."

"I..I think there is something stalking me. I feel like it might be an angel, but I don't know for sure, and I don't want to get killed by something if I don't know what it is."

Dean's frown hardened to a glare and I gulped, knowing I was caught. "Listen, Charlie, how close are you?"

"Well, where are you right now?"

Dean smirked at that, turning his eyes from mine. "Right where the tracking device you planted on Baby last placed us."

"Right….. I was going to tell you about that Dean, I swear I was, it's just-"

Dean interrupted the rambling genius. "It's fine; we knew it was yours, or it would be in a bush on the side of the highway somewhere in the heartland. So, how close are you?"

I sighed, hugging myself. Topeka General Hospital. I thought in frustration. But she's not going to tell him that.

Would you? Balthy's soft voice echoed in my head and I huffed in irritation.

"Alright, well if you can tear yourself from all the hot, modestly dressed cosplay girls for a few hours, come by. We need to talk."

Charlie said her goodbyes and Dean hung up, returning his cell phone to his pocket as he turned cold eyes on me. "So," he started and I had to convince myself his eyes weren't pitch black and weren't ever going to be. "Angelic stalker. Any fan theories as to why she would think that?"

"Look, I'm sorry, okay? It's just that I was beginning to worry I wouldn't be able to convince Samandriel to stay for much longer, and Charlie's like a week and a half overdue, and I was scared she might go investigating the djinn alone and I love her so much, like more than Gabe or Alfie or Cassie, and-"

Dean interrupted. "What djinn? What do you mean, she's late?"

"In my universe, she showed up like, two weeks ago with this case."

Dean groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. "Please tell me that's not why you've kept us at the bunker instead of letting us hunt."

I felt my cheeks heat up and I looked away, eyes lighting on Sam before moving from his confused frown to the floor between my toes. My wings shifted nervously, as if they knew I was in trouble and wanted to help placate my brothers.

Dean groaned. "Damn, what is it with you two and Cas that you're all so good at impersonating kicked puppies?" He sighed. "Kara, why didn't you just tell us? I've been meaning to invite her to the bunker for a while. She would love this place."

My eyes widened. "Really? You never gave any indication of that in the show."

He rolled his eyes. "She's like a little sister to me; of course I was."

"Wait-" Sam butted in. "What does this have to do with Samandriel?"

I feigned innocence the best I could. "What are you talking about?"

He rolled his eyes. "When you first started your blustering explanation to Dean, you mentioned that you weren't sure how much longer you could get him to stay. What's that go to do with Charlie?"

"Nothing."I said quickly, apparently too quickly, not looking at either of them.

"Oh my god," Sam said, "You want to set them up!"

I glared at him, straightening in defiance. "So maybe I do, so what?"

Dean raised an eyebrow. "You do know Charlie is gay, right?"

I grinned. "It was brought to my attention."

Dean stared at me like I was stupid. "Hello? Samandriel is a guy!"

I sighed. "No, Alfie is a guy. Samandriel is no more a guy then Cas is married with a daughter."

Sam winced and Dean twitched, his ears turning pink and I was immediately apologetic. I sighed. "Look, I just want them to meet?"

Sam sighed a little. "Okay, but what about the rest?"

I grinned. "Well, we'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it."

Sam scoffed. "You know, sometimes I just can't believe you."

Just then, Alfie walked in. "So, what's next on the list of my education?"

I cast out my senses. Charlie was about ten minutes away.

I grinned. "Do you know the Ultimate Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything?"

Alfie frowned at me and Sm smirked, then answered for him. "Forty two."

I pointed to him with a huge grin on my face. "One hundred purple pony points to the moose!" The Winchesters smirked and rolled their eyes while Alfie frowned in confusion. I just grinned and motioned for them to all follow me. We went to the extra bedroom (which had become our home theater of sorts) and I popped the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy DVD into the tray and hopped onto the couch between Sam and Dean with a grin. With a snap, the TV was on and the remote was in my hand. Samandriel smiled and sat on the other side of Sam from me. When I pressed play, the movie started and we all settled in to watch it.

The Vogon leader had just announced the imminent destruction of Earth when Dean's phone buzzed. He got up to go let Charlie in as the Earth detonated. I shifted my weight to put my head on Sam's shoulder and we continued watching.

When Dean returned, followed by Charlie, Ford and Arthur were about to get poetry read to them by the Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz. Dean rolled his eyes. "Gee, thanks for pausing the movie for me, guys."

I smirked. "We're watching this for Alfie's sake, remember?"

"Um, Dean?" Charlie said timidly, "you going to introduce your friends?"

I grinned and waved a little at the gorgeous redhead. "Hi, Charlie!"

She frowned. "Um, hi? Sorry, I have no idea who you are."

Dean sighed. The kid there is Samandriel. He Cas' little brother. The girl is Kara. She's a little more complicated to explain."

I grinned. "I'm from a galaxy far, far away."

I heard Sam's scoff through the shoulder that was still against his chest. "Try a universe."

I grinned and shrugged into him a little while Charlie scoffed. "Please; the multiverse theory is a complete crock, Sam."

I pouted. "Aw, come on, Charlie, Cas and Balthy have sent the boys to an alternate reality before!"

"Okay, who the hell are you, and how do you know that?"

I sighed, standing up, and walked over. "do you mind a direct download? It's quicker than making you read it all, and then we don't have to turn the light on." Alfie had already paused the movie. I stood back as her eyes darted to Dean, and then Sam, who each gave her a tiny nod. She sighed and squared her shoulders, nodding at me. With a proud grin, I gently placed my finger to her forehead, sending her all the information she needed to understand who I was; glossing over why I wanted her to meet us here. When I was done, she gasped.

"Holy Hannah, Batman!" She turned to Sam and Dean. "You guys are angels now?" They both shrugged.

Charlie grinned. "By the way, have you guys figured out which birds your wings look like?"

I grinned at her. "You recognized them too?"

She nodded with a smirk. Dean sighed. "Okay, let's hear it." He said.

I frowned. "Hear what?"

He rolled his eyes. "What bird am I?"

"Oh!" I snickered. "Well, you're a booby and Sam is a loon."

Sam shook his head. "Of course. Why did I expect any different?" He rolled his eyes at Charlie and I as we snickered.

Dean cleared his throat. "You know we were in the middle of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy…"

I squeaked, turning to Charlie. "Oh my god; you should join us! You can never see this movie too many times!"

Charlie laughed before sitting in Sam's place next to Alfie on the couch. The angel still hadn't moved since pausing the movie, opting instead to stare at our visitor. As Charlie sat between us, I rolled my eyes at the dumbfounded angel before using me mojo to snap the remote out of his hands into my own. He blinked at me before returning his owlish stare to Charlie.

The redhead shifted, turning to me with a small frown on her face. "Is he okay?" She asked, concern coloring her voice.

I smirked before turning to her. "Why don't you ask him?" When she shrugged, I smiled. "Shall I ask?"

She smiled gratefully at me before nodding.

"You okay over there, Alf?" The angel in question shook himself.

"Of course! I'm alright."

I smirked, turning back to watch the movie. I smiled as I felt Charlie relax into my side as we watched one of the greatest nerd classics of all time.

As the credits rolled, I stood and stretched, a wide grin on my face. "Man, that movie never gets old." I said.

Sam chuckled. "No kidding. What did you think, Alfie?" We turned to the angel, who turned a bright red and studied his toes.

"It was…" He cleared his throat. "It was good, if a little bit unrealistic." He looked up, meeting my eye with a challenging brow raised. "I mean, really? The infinite improbability drive? That is extremely unrealistic."

"That's sort of the point, buddy. It's comedic genius."

He rolled his eyes. "More of a comedic tragedy."

I shook my head. "No, you want a comedic tragedy? Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog."

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Seriously? Of all the shows."

I pouted at her. "Come one, Dr. Horrible is a great story! By the way," I joked with a grin, "has anyone ever told you you look like Penny?" I know why; in my universe, Felicia Day plays both Charlie and Penny, but who would pass up an opportunity for some light Charlie teasing? Certainly not me!

Charlie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, I am Felicia Day."

I smirked. "Yeah, and Dean is Jensen Ackles." Dean rolled his eyes at that and Sam smirked.

"And I'm Jared Padalecki." The moose piped in.

Charlie shook her head. "No you guys, I'm actually Felicia Day." She pulled her pack over to her, rummaging through it to reveal a very good fake California driver's license.

Felicia Day it read, with a birthdate of June 28, 1979. I raised an eyebrow.

"Wow, you actually are." I said. I looked up at her with my brow in my hairline. "You realize that makes you the woman that helped me realize I was bi, right?"

She grinned. "Really, did I do that?" I noticed her posture change and smiled.

"Sorry, sweetie, Balthy got to me first, and I am nothing if not loyal."

She nodded with a soft smile, slumping a little bit. "Good. Stay loyal. The world needs more loyalty in it." I smiled and gave her shoulders a small squeeze.

Dean cleared his throat. "How long we got you for, Charlie?" The shrugged a little.

"Really, the only thing I have to be anywhere for is the Battle of Moons next week." I gasped, turning to the boys with a huge grin.

"Moondor? Oh boy, can we go? Please please please?"

Dean chuckled. "You know I'm down. Sammy?"

The moose smirked. "Why not? Who doesn't like dressing up as a knight and messing around?" I grinned, turning to Charlie. She nodded with a smile.

"We can always use more warriors. I'll bring Dean in as my advisor. Do you want me to do the same for you, Kara?"

I grinned. "Hell yeah!"

She chuckled as Dean spoke up again. "Here, Charlie, come help me get a room put together for you."

She nodded and left the room with him. Shortly after, Sam left, making some excuse about going to find out what Gabe was up to.

That left me and Samandriel.

"So, Alf…" I started, sitting next to him.

"When are you thinking of leaving for Australia?"

He turned startled eyes on me. "What?"

I shrugged. "I've showed you everything from the nerdy world I wanted you to see. I'm not going to keep you here anymore if you don't want it."

He nodded. "What if-" his voice cracked a little and failed. He cleared his throat before continuing. "What if I don't want to?"

I smiled and shrugged. "No one is going to force you. You're free to leave, if that's what you want, or you can stay here. What do you want to stay here for?" I asked, trying to slow the growth of the triumphant blossoming in my chest.

"i-" he sighed. "I don't know, Kara. There's something about Charlie. Her soul…" He shook his head. "I used to think Castiel had finally lost it; all that chatter about Dean's soul and it's beauty and how he couldn't bear to watch it suffer." He looked down. "But now, I it had been Charlie going down to Hell, I would break down the gates to save her as well, or die trying."

I grinned and let the triumph build in my heart until I was bursting.

Do you mind, darling? I can't concentrate. Do you want a birthday present or not?

What?

I can feel your triumphant smirk. It's overwhelming all my other senses, in fact. What's got you all smug?

With a grin, I sent a flashback of the last two minutes. I could feel him roll his eyes.

How very delightful. It's almost like you weren't already expecting that to happen.

Oh, shut up. I said with a grin. Doesn't mean I can't still be happy for them.

Well, tone it down, would you? I'm trying to concentrate.

"Kara,? Do you have nothing to say?"

I blinked. "Sorry, Alfie, what was that?"

He sighed. "What do I do?"

I smiled. "Well, what do you want?"

He shook his head. "Charlie, but…"

"But what?"

He scoffed. "What part of 'she's gay' didn't you catch the first time?"

I smirked. "Excuse me for being aware I'm talking to a big superpowerful ball of celestial intent. No one informed me you guys came with genders."

He worried his bottom lip with his teeth. "But my vessel-"

"Is just a vessel, is it not?" I sighed. "Look, creation is a lot easier than you'd think. I was talking to Gabe, and he knows how to make vessels. Apparently, God taught him how when he was first getting all this going. We can make you a vessel; a female one, and make her match you better than Alfie does. What do you say, Samandriel?"

I smiled at him when he turned surprised eyes on me. "You would do that for me? What do you want in return?"

I groaned, rolling my eyes. "I want you to stop second guessing me! This isn't some business transaction, Alf, this is me trying to help you get together with your favorite soul. That's what you do for friends."

The angel's eyes widened. "Friends? What-"

I grinned. "You're officially my friend now. No backing out, no options. Now, tell me what you want. A new vessel? To escape to Australia? To hang around? This is your life, Samandriel; it's your choice."

He sighed. "I-I want a new vessel."

I grinned and wrapped my arm around his shouder, squeezing lightly. "Consider it done."

Gabe, the plan is a go. I prayed, knowing he would get it, and not wanting to go find him for fear of catching him in a… compromising position with a certain moose I did not want to see without pants anytime soon.


	17. Chapter 17

The next few days were honestly pretty mundane. Well, considering how many of us are angels, mundane is the wrong word. _Boring_. There we go. I retained my talent for making my brothers roll their eyes, and Gabe and I worked hard; not just on Samandriel's new vessel, but also on pranking the boys in some of the best ways. I managed (barely) to convince him to leave Baby alone, but that still left a long list of things we could swing; ranging from petty and silly (dyeing Sam's hair) to downright disastrous (imagine Dean and Cas buried in feathers in their room). Balthazar, connected to me telepathically, always managed to be working on issues in Heaven whenever our pranks went down. He "didn't want to be dragged into the middle of a prank war."

As for the vessel, she turned out a little more complicated than we expected, mostly because Alfie had washed his hands of the design and Gabe and I simply couldn't agree. I wanted to make a vessel that I knew would blow Charlie away, but Gabe shot my idea down, saying that Samandriel "needed to be comfortable in her own skin".

Finally, in an attempt to get this show on the road in time for Moondor, we dragged first Balthy, then Samandriel in to mediate. Between the two, we were able to settle on a vessel; tall and willowy, with just enough heft to have curves. She was nearly as tall as Dean; at least three inches taller than Charlie and five inches taller than Alfie. With high, sharp cheekbones and long, straight raven black hair, she looked almost elven with stony gray eyes. When the vessel was complete, I couldn't help but grin.

"Very elven. Perfect for the Lord of the Rings nerd."

Gabe grinned at me. "Don't forget how comfortable Samandriel is going to be in his vessel."

I smiled. "We should name her."

Balthy frowned. "Why? She's just a vessel."

I pouted. "Samandriel is a mouthful, but we already have a Sam-slash-Sammy in the group. We should call her Alfina."

Alfie frowned at me. "Why?"

I grinned at him. "I like calling you Alfie." Balthazar smirked as Gabe rolled his eyes. Samandriel smiled softly.

"I'm okay with that. I like going by Alfie."

I grinned. "So… we ready to go?"

Alfie smiled and nodded. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth, the bright light of his grace pouring out of his old vessel and flowing into Alfina.

She opened her eyes, standing as Alfie crumpled to the floor. Samandriel strode over to stand over her old vessel, smiling softly before placing her finger to his forehead. We all watched as the empty vessel dissolved into dust and was scattered.

When she turned to me, I grinned. "You good, Samandriel?" The angel nodded, but there was a slight draw of her eyebrows.

I raised mine, and she shook her head. "I'm good, I think… It's just… You spend so much time thinking humans are the same, but… Just the biology difference is staggering. Did you know the female brain is structured differently than males? My thoughts race faster and connect more readily than before. I even have more coordination and control than before."

Gabe snickered. "I hate to break it to you, sweetie, but the coordination has more to do with this vessel having been custom engineered for you than the gender."

"And what about the reproductive system? It is all inside, and geared more toward creating a child than propagating."

I smirked. "Gee, I wonder why."

Alfie just leveled a bitchface on me; well used to my sarcasm by now.

I just smirked again. "Come one, Moondor awaits!" I turned, rushing out to the front room, where I knew Dean and Sam were waiting with Charlie.

I heard chuckling as Gabe, then the others, followed me. Charlie was nowhere to be seen, but Dean and Sam looked up as we entered.

"Wow; where's the pointy ears, elfie?"

Alfina frowned at Dean. "It's _Alfie_ …" She started to correct him, but I rolled my eyes and stuck my tongue out at Dean.

"Ignore the squirrel." I said, earning a glare. "He's being a dick."

Alfie smiled a little at that.

As we prepared to leave, Charlie came in from apparently putting bags in the trunk of Baby. "So, I have armor and foam swords for everyone. I also grabbed your bow, Kara, and some nerf arrows. The weight may take some adjusting to, but we don't need you actually hurting anyone or-" She froze staring at Samandriel. "Who the hell is this?"

I grinned. "Alfina, Charlie; Charlie, Samandriel."

She frowned. "What about Alfie?"

I shrugged. "He was just a vessel. I didn't bring his soul back; just his body and Samandriel. I figured why force the boy back to Earth? He was enjoying heaven, and I didn't have any desire to drag him away. I only wanted Samandriel, so I only revived Samandriel."

"Okay, then what's with the gender swap?"

I grinned. "That's for Alfie to explain." The girl's face turned bright red.

"I-ah… I'm gonna go see if Castiel needs my help moving things." She turned on her heel, rushing from the room. Charlie watched her hasty retreat.

"I've got to admit you did well. Look at that ass." I smirked before deciding to just humor the redhead and look.

"Huh." I said. "No kidding. I hadn't noticed during production. Samandriel wears it well."

I felt more than saw Balthy's pout and smiled. _Please; you can't pretend you didn't look._

 _Not making me feel better._

I chuckled. _You know I am for you and no one else._ At Charlie clearing her throat, I straightened.

"Right; is everything ready to go?"

"Almost." Charlie said, snapping back to the present, "I've packed gear, but we don't have any snacks."

I grinned. "That's okay. What do you want?"

Charlie thought for a minute. "Chocolate covered gummy bears."

I laughed softly. "Girl after my own heart." I snapped and there was a big bag of chocolate covered gummy bears in her hands.

Gabe, who had wandered off before Charlie came in, suddenly appeared at her side. "Oh my father, where did they come up with _that_?"

He reached for some, and Charlie smacked his hand away. "Oh _no_ , you don't! These are mine! Get your own, Mr. Archangel!"

Pouting a bit at my smirk, Gabe released a gusty, put upon sigh. He raised his eyes to the ceiling and with the laziest impression of a snap I have ever seen, a bag of chocolate covered gummy bears appeared in his grip, identical to the one in Charlie's hands. With a grin, he shoved his hand into the bag and pulled out a handful, popping some in his mouth and throwing the rest in Sam's general direction. "Eat them, gigantor, eat them!"

"Gabe, stop! What the hell are you trying to put in my body!"

I snickered as the moose, dodging the rain of gummy bears coming his way, full body tackled his mate, working to wrest the gummy bears from him and succeeding in spilling gummy bears all over the floor.

Charlie grinned, holding her bag out to me as we watched. I took some of her bears with a smile.

"Ooh, Sammy, I get all tingly when you get so forceful with me!" Gabe cried in delight.

There was a growled response of "that's not all I'll make you. Give me the gummy bears!"

"What the hell is all over my floor?!" Dean's voice rang out. "Dammit, Sammy, get your archangel under control!" There was a grunt and then another growl from the knot on the floor.

"Dammit, Dean, I'm trying, you jerk! Will someone get these damn gummy bears out from under me?"

"You made the mess, you clean it up, bitch!" Dean said before turning to grin at Charlie and I who had tears streaming down our faces. Pushing his hand into her bag, he grabbed a handful of gummy bears; settling in to watch. Soon, Cas and Alfie also showed up, Cas standing by Dean, while Alfie stood next to Charlie. Dean silently held his handful of gummy bears out to his mate, who raised an eyebrow.

With a smirk, Dean shrugged and took them back; completely unconcerned with Cas' blatant disapproval of his eating habits. Charlie held her bag out to Samandriel, who accepted a few with a confused frown.

"Why, are we watching Sam and Gabriel wrestle?" She asked as I reached out for Charlie's bag to take some more out.

I smirked, popping a few more bears in my mouth before replying. "Are you kidding? This is the _best_ kind of comedy. Slapstick with a side of pay-per-porn."

Dean groaned. "Oh god, that's disgusting. Why would you put that image in my head?"

I grinned. "You love me."

"Ha!" Sam cried, pinning his archangel. "Now," he said, breathless and panting, "clean up this mess so we can hit the road. The queen and her advisors need to make it to Moondor by tomorrow, and we're late already!"

With a small whine, Gabe snapped and the gummy bears that had been smushed into the floor by their wrestling were gone. As soon as the front room was clean again, Sam stood and turned to the rest of us.

"So, we ready to go defend Moondor?"

"You know I am." Dean grinned as he turned toward the door, striding to the stairs before turning back to grin at us.

With a grin that grew all the time, I turned and followed the squirrel up the stairs and out the front door. Sam and Charlie followed closely behind as we set out for Baby.

The sound of wings signalled the entrance of Balthazar. I turned to Gabe, Balthy, and Cas, who were all standing together. With a grin, I said,

"Now, don't miss us too bad, boys."

Balthazar smirked before taking my hand and kissing it gently. "Every moment." He said, sincerity in his voice betrayed by the sarcastic smirk on his face. I grinned and kissed the tip of his nose before returning to Baby with the others. Dean hopped in the Driver's seat and Sam hopped shotgun, leaving us girls to curl up in the back.

"Charlie's in the middle!" I yelled with a grin, laughing as I opened the door and hopped in the back. With a grin and a chuckle, Alfie opened the door for Charlie, who smiled primly at her before grinning and sliding in to elbow me playfully before buckling herself in.

Alfie slid in with a small smile. When she was buckled up, Dean started Baby and I grinned as I felt her engine come to life; roaring for a few seconds before she settled into a powerful purr.

I grinned. "You go, Baby. Purr for me."

Dean, with his angelic freaking hearing, _of course_ heard me. He smirked. "You trying to sweet talk my Baby, now?"

I grimaced at him as he chuckled and Sam smirked. "Just appreciating her beauty, Dean. Why, you afraid she'll choose me over you?"

He grinned and patted the dashboard affectionately. "Nah, we've been through too much together for her to just turn on me like that."

I laughed and shrugged. "If you say so." I gave a surprised grunt when I felt Charlie's chuckle vibrate across my arm. I turned and saw her curled slightly around my. When I raised my eyebrow at her, she grinned and I heard her voice on my prayer ine.

 _I'm just curious what Alfie's like when she's jealous. She still hasn't told me why she wanted to switch. Of course, I've already figured that out._

I smirked and shook my head, trying to get my arm out of her grasp, but it didn't work. Sighing and moving my arm so she was against my chest, I leaned in to whisper in her ear. As I did, I shot a glance to Alfie's downcast face as she tried to look anywhere but the Queen of Moons. With a sigh, I whispered,

"Are you sure you'll see her jealous? Looks to me like she's just gonna give up. She's really nervous."

With a glance to Alfie, Charlie sighed and sat up. "Alf? You okay, pretty girl?"

With a grin, I reclaimed the arm the redhead had commandeered.

The angel turned to her. "What? I'm fine. I'm just looking out the window. I've never spent this much time in a car."

I smiled. "Try it in the Pacific Northwest. You'll never find more variations of green in the US."

Charlie sighed as I turned to grin out the window as the Kansas wilderness raced by outside.

I felt a shift in Charlie's posture and grinned wider, knowing she had shifted to lean on Alfie. "So…. what's it like being in a car with three newly turned angels?" I smirked at the sound of Charlie's attempted conversation with her angel.

"I-I…" Alfie stammered, clearly taken aback by the sudden attention, the sudden lack of personal space. "It's not _bad,_ per se, it just feels like I'm in a car with a bunch of strangers. I never got to know the Winchesters, and all I did with Kara was get a crash course in all things nerdy."

Charlie gasped, whipping around to smack my shoulder with a betrayed look on her face. "Oh my God, Kara, you planned this!"

I smirked and rolled my eyes. "Yeah, sure Charlie, because I have that kind of power." I said scathingly.

Dean smirked and Sam started violently coughing. I reached forward and smacked the moose's back. "You alright there, Sammy?"

"He's allergic to bull shit." Dean butted in. "Too close and he goes into a crazy coughing fit. It's one of the reasons I always hated taking him to bars." He smirked at me in the rearview mirror and I chuckled.

"Okay, I get it; far fetched theory, jeez." Charlie muttered, crossing her arms.

Dean's eyes widened and he made eye contact with me in the mirror.

 _Is that what she thought I meant?_ He prayed to me.

I grinned, trying not to laugh as I prayed back. _Yeah, I think it is. Oh my God. Don't correct her, but-holy shit._

I looked over to see Samandriel- _Alfina_ put an arm over her with a smile. "Don't let them fool you, Charlie; she _does_ have that kind of power; after all, how else would Balthazar, Gabe and I be here?"

Charlie frowned. "What do you mean?"

Alfie smiled as the redhead snuggled in closer to her. "Well, we were all dead. Lucifer killed Gabriel, Castiel killed Balthazar, and Naomi brainwashed Castiel to kill me."

"Dean never told me-"

"That Cas went off the reservation?" The squirrel interrupted. "Charlie, we've all gone of the reservation at last once before. It's in the past, and I don't like dragging people back through the shit in their past."

I smiled warmly at him and Charlie sighed a little. "Fine; I get it."

I smiled and nudged her playfully. "Hey, I'm as pro free will as anyone else. I'm not going to force you into anything."

Charlie rolled her eyes and turned to smirk at me. "No, you'll just do everything you can to convince me."

I grinned at her. "Well, it's working so far, and I haven't heard any complaints. Boys?"

Dean chuckled quietly. "None here. Sammy?"

"What?" The moose said, startling out of his reverie. Considering the crack in his voice and his uncomfortable shift, not to mention the smug smirk that overcame Dean's face, I could guess what that daydream had been.

 _Are you hearing your mate, Gabe?_ I prayed.

 _You have no idea._ Echoed over my prayer line.

I smirked. _Congrats on the self control._ His laughter echoed over my prayer line.

"Kara?" Sam was turned to me.

I shook myself. "Hmmm? Yes, dear?"

He rolled his eyes and said, "Dean said you had a question."

"Any complaints on your side over my Sabriel ship?"

He grinned, a sly look tilting his lips until that grin was almost sideways. "Nope; absolutely no complaints here."

I grinned at Charlie. "See? Is it really so bad that I've been shipping you?"

She rolled her eyes. "I suppose not. Fine, let's set sail on this bitch!" She turned to Alfie, who was watching her intently with a hint of confusion on her face. With a grin, she leaned up and planted a sloppy kiss on the angel's lips. After a moment's stiffening, Alfie relaxed with a grin. At my catcalling, Dean looked in the rearview mirror and chuckled. He shook his head as he turned back to the road. With a glance at the list of restaurants available at the next exit, he signaled and shifted into the lane to the right.

I frowned. "What's wrong?"

Sam smirked. "Dean wants pie." I snickered at the glare the older Winchester shot his brother.

"Fine by me. That diner with the cute bird's nest logo looked good."

Dean grinned. "My thoughts _exactly._ We'll be there in ten."

I laughed as we exited the freeway, Baby roaring through the intersection at the end of the off ramp.


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N: I'm so sorry about the wait! I took a hiatus from Fan Fiction and spent some time working on my apartment sitch and life. But I'm back! Thank you sooo much for your support!**

We reached a motel outside of Farmington Hills with nine hours to spare. None of us but Charlie need sleep, but we rented a room for the weekend to use as our home base. As Alfie gently shook her human awake, I worked with the boys to unload the weapons and armor. As we were hauling our suitcases with our clothes in, Balthy and Cas showed up in the room, smiling as Dean and I entered with our cases. AS we put our bags down, Dean grinned as surged toward Cas, even as Balthy surged toward me. Cas and I caught our mates with small laughs.

When I pulled away with a grin, I heard Sam say,

"What are you guys doing here? How's heaven going?"

Cas turned to smile at the moose. "Heaven is going well. The angels have all fallen pretty peacefully in line, and are good, at least for now."

Sam looked around the room as Alfie carried a still sleepy, grinning Charlie in the door behind Sam. "Where's Gabe?" He asked.

Balthazar smirked. "Big important meeting. He couldn't get out of it to come visit his favorite gigantor."

I snickered. "I can just imagine the pout."

Cas smiled. "I saw it before we left. It was pretty epic." He grinned at Dean when his mate chuckled softly. "I think he considers his puts a kind of art. He certainly works hard on them."

"You have no idea." Sam said with a fond smile on his face. "'Sammich, I'm going for pitiful! Help me!'" Sam pulled his best mockery of his mate's pout, complete with doe eyes and a frown deeper than the Marianas Trench.

At my laughter, Charlie opened her eyes. "Alfie? Kara? Why are you laughing? What's so funny?" I grinned and shook my head.

"Sorry, Charlie. You missed that joke."

She pouted and, when Alfie tried to put her down, snuggled further into Alfie's arms, causing the angel's soft smile to grow until it was stretching her cheeks wide as she wrapped her arms back around the redhead.

I smiled as I felt Balthazar's arms pull me back into his chest. "When do you two need to go back?"

Cas grinned at me from where Dean had him trapped much like I was. "We don't. Not for a few days, at least. That's one of the reasons Gabe is sitting through this meeting. He's giving assignments and laying down rules for them to follow during our leave of absence.

"Leave of absence?" Sam frowned.

"You heard right, my dear moose." Gabe randomly showed up behind him, jumping on his back to grin over his shoulder. Sam caught him easily and held him with a chuckle. "For the next three days, heaven will have to manage without it's only three mated angels."

Suddenly, he was standing and halfway through a bow to Charlie, who was still cradled against Alfie's chest. "If her majesty is alright with having three more warriors, that is."

Charlie grinned. "I can always use more angels, but we didn't pack any extra swords."

With a grin and a snap from Gabriel, he, Cas, and Balthy all had belts with foam swords stuck into them around their waists. I grinned and shifted a little so Balthy's wasn't poking into my back.

"Problem solved!" Dean said with a grin.

Charlie smiled, putting her feet down and straightening as Alfie's hands settled on her hips.

"Sir Gabriel, I would be honored if you and your brothers joined my honor guard."

With a grin and a little flourish, Gabriel completed his bow.

As I snickered, Dean clapped his hands together. "Alright; we've got nine hours. Let's get planning. He turned to Charlie. "So, Your Highness, which section of your army is strongest?"

We spent the next three hours plotting the placement of the army, not to mention the placement of all seven of us angels. At three AM, six hours before Moondor started, Gabe frowned at Charlie's fifth yawn in as many minutes and said,

"Okay, the Queen of Moons needs her beauty sleep. Time for bed."

Charlie frowned. "There's only two beds."

"Sweetheart, you're the only human in the group. Sleep is a luxury for us. We can keep watch." I said before praying to Samandriel.

 _However, if you don't sleep with her, we may have a problem._

Alfie flushed and studied her shoes with a small smile. The microscopic nod she gave told me she was okay with that. I grinned.

"Charlie, go to bed. Balthy and I will take the first watch. You boys go have fun." I winked at Sam and Dean, who grinned and took off with their Angels in tow.

I pulled Balthazar over to the bed, snapping us both into appropriate PJs.

"I thought you two were keeping watch." Charlie said, smiling around a stifled yawn.

I grinned. "We won't sleep, but there's no couch to cuddle on. Don't worry, we'll keep watch. I got under the covers, beckoning Balthazar to do the same. He slid in behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me closer.

 _Join me for a dance?_ I asked silently. He grinned at the plan formulating in my head and nodded. As one, we both left our vessels; rising above the motel. We danced around, never venturing more than a mile from the venturing more than a mile from the motel; terrifying a few truckers with my giggling, and chasing a werewolf couple that was staying a few rooms down in the motel. Mostly though, we were in the motel. Mostly though, we were just together. Tag, hide-and-seek, we played all the games we could, laughing and arguing. He sparked a tickle fight that we had to stop when we blew out the lights of the restaurant across the street and had to repair it all.

Two and half quiet, playful hours later, we saw Cas and Dean return, approaching the motel room. Breathless, we barely made it back into our vessels absolute disgust on Dean's face. As we collapsed, breathlessly giggling, back into our vessels, Dean walked in, a look of absolute disgust on his face.

"I swear to God! You two are serious exhibitionists! What the hell?"

"Dean," Cas said, trailing after him, "I'm trying to tell you no one keeps their vessels in heaven. You are going to see a lot of angels like that."

"Yeah, but they won't be openly messing around!" He saw me sit up and glowered at me. "Thanks for that. I need brain bleach now."

I frowned at him. "You're welcome? What did I miss?"

Alfie answered from her place on the bed, arms wrapped securely around a quietly snoozing Charlie. "Dean is embarrassed by your naked display of affection while you were keeping watch."

I grinned, trying to shrug the blush off my face. Balthazar sat up, his grin pinching in the middle where it met my cheek. _You are as beautiful when you blush as when we abandon our vessels and play._

I looked up to see Cas gazing warmly at us as Dean shook his head and looked somewhere, _anywhere_ else.

Suddenly, a sleepy voice sounded room the other bed. "You two really, truly love each other. Like actual, legit love."

I smiled at Balthazar. "Eternity is a long time to spend with someone if the love's not real."

Alfie frowned. "Well, yes, but usually humans 'fall in love' and base it all off feelings. You are determined to stay."

I smiled. "Well, love isn't about how you feel. Love is a verb, it's an action that we make. Love isn't just rosy glasses and jokes. Love is waking up to your partner throwing up and holding her hair. It's arguing with your beloved over something minor, then forgiving him before the day is up, so that the sun doesn't go down on your anger."

Dean raised his eyebrows at me. "Where did this come from?"

I grinned at him. "Oh come now, your research is incomplete."

Balthazar, knowing where I was going with this, grinned. "Oh, please do. This is going to be _great_."

I grinned back. "Love is patient, love is kind; it doesn't envy, it doesn't boast. It is not proud, it is not rude, it is not self-seeking. It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrong. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth."

Cas smiled. "It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails."

Alfie frowned in confusion. "Are we continuing?" I grinned and nodded, and she shrugged with a small smile. "Alright, well, but where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge it will pass away. For-" Alfie stopped and turned to frown at me, eyebrows raised questioningly at me. With a wink and smirk, I took over and continued.

"For we know in part and we prophesy in part but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain; faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love."

"Wow, who went ham on First Corinthians?" I whirled to see half of Gabe's face turn up in a smirk.

"Kara decided to define love for me." Dean said with a grin in my direction.

"Well, that's one of the best definitions out there. I gotta say, Paul was kind of a dick, but he was a damn good prophet."

"That's not what you said when you met him." Balthazar said, smirking at his brother.

Gabe rolled his eye. "He was an asshole. He rubbed me the wrong way, okay?" I chuckled.

"Somehow I'm not surprised." I grinned when Gabe stuck his tongue out at me.

Gabe, Sam, Cas, and Dean all sat at the table. Balthazar and I god dressed and joined them. We sat that way and continued talking until it was time to wake Charlie for Moondor. When I turned to tell Alfie as much, I noticed she had already noticed the time for herself and was gently shaking the redhead awake. When Charlie jolted awake with a snort and a murmured "Merry Christmas", I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. She sat up and blinked blearily at everyone. "What time is it?" She sighed, trying to rub the fog of sleep away. I grinned broadly when Alfie reached up and lightly brushed her lips against the girl's forehead, Charlie's eyes immediately clearing and brightening. I smiled softly as Charlie grinned, turning to press her lips against Alfie's gratefully. She turned to the rest of us. "What time is it?"

Gabe grinned. "Time for the queen to awaken. You've got an hour, max, to freshen up and then we have to go to the battlefield." She nodded, smirking a little at the genius (or not so much) way that we had chosen to use to fit six people into three chairs.

She got up, stretched, and said, "Well, I'd better get going, then, so that we can get out of here."

I smiled as she got her bag and went to the bathroom.I hummed when Balthy's hand left my hip and moved to my back, rubbing circles there.

Dean cleared his throat, turning away from us. "So," he began as Cas suddenly sighed a little happy sigh and leaned back. "What sort of state is heaven in right now?"

Gabe shushed him frantically from his perch in Sam's lap. "Don't say the H word! Those obnoxious siblings of mine are probably listening and waiting for us to discuss it so they can pounce and drag me back up there to referee!" I laughed and Dean rolled his eyes.

"Alright, then, Mr. Drama Queen how do we want to dress up for Moondor? Kara would make a kick ass draconian, or at least half dragon, with those wings."

The door opened a crack and Charlie said, "No, that wouldn't work. There aren't any dragons of any kind in Moondor. Even if there were, how would I justify suddenly have a draconian in the circle of my closest advisors? That's not fair play, no matter how kickass she looks."

I grinned at the warm tone in her voice before clapping once and turning to Dean with a grin on my face. "That settles that. No wings, I think, is a good rule for all of us. We're just supposed to be LARPers, remember? That means we're _human._ Charlie," I turned to the bathroom door, raising my voice a bit, "What do your inner circle of knights wear?"

"Give me a minute." She came out a few minutes later, her unzipped dress hanging loosely from her frame. "Zip me up?" She asked Alfie, who smiled and stood, walking over to the redhead and zipping her dress up the back. When she was done, Charlie smiled and thanked her before walking over to her bag, standing open on her bed.

"I don't have any actual outfits, but here are some pictures we took last month at the feast."

When she returned across the room, I took the folder she was holding out. Opening it, I rifled through some of the pictures and frowned.

"Wait, which of these people are in your inner circle."

She grinned and pointed out a few skinny guys and one rather grumpy looking girl. They were decked out in a pretty stereotypical outfit, if you ask me.

It was one of those diamond quadrant designs, with four squares. The top left and bottom right squares were red, and the top right and bottom left squares were white. There were little symbols on the shoulder, but I just looked up at the computer genius peeking over mine.

"Seriously?"

She shrugged with a small smile. "What can I say? I inherited the design. It was chosen long before I became queen."

Sighing, I nodded and passed the picture to Gabe, who smirked before passing it to Cas.

Dean groaned. "Please tell me you're joking."

I grinned. "Sorry squirrel, it's time to unleash your inner dork."

I felt more than heard Balthazar snort behind me. With a roll of his eyes, Dean sighed. "Come on, guys. We need to get going soon if we're going to get there on time."

With a grin, I leaned back into Balthazar, who scooted his chair back just enough to let me hop up, which I did.

"So… Who's going in Baby?" I asked with a small smile.

Gabe smirked. "We need something bigger so we can all drive together." Dean rolled his eyes.

"What, Baby's suddenly not good enough for you anymore?"

Sam smiled. "C'mon, Dean, she can only fit so many of us."

I grinned. "Yeah, what we need is a proper Mystery Machine for this Scooby Gang." Charlie snickered.

"If we're the Scooby Gang, where's our Scooby?"

I grinned and winked at Charlie. "I figure Shaggy's sitting on him."

When she's frowned at me I grinned and winked, dyeing Gabe's hair bright orange and turning his t-shirt bright green.

Dean snickered and Sam shot me a bitchface. "Ha ha, that's real funny."

"Wait," Deans aid, turning to me. "Does that mean we need to stop for Sammy snacks?"

As Sam' bitchface turned on his brother, Gabe snapped, his hands suddenly full of varying kinds of fruit. He turned around.

"Here you go; Sammy snacks for Sammy!" The moose rolled his eyes.

"Seriously guys?"

I chuckled. "In the meantime, I think Sam, Gabe, Balthy, and I should fly there, since there's only four seats and it's Dean's car, which means he's driving, and Charlie can't fly herself yet, so she may as well, ride with Dean, and then Cas and Alfie can ride with their mates."

I turned to the others in a silent request for objections. Receiving none, I nodded and we all took of for the park.


End file.
